Phantoms of the Underworld
by praeses
Summary: Chasing legends usually gets you nowhere in life. Nowhere but in debt, broke, and running for said life courtesy of your former boss who just so happened to frame you for the murder of the head of the local black market. Piracy? In a yellow submarine? Eh, sure. It's not like I have anything better to do anyway... Warning: Violence, blood, and bad language! Law/OC eventually
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there people. The name's praeses and this here is my first shot at a One Piece story. Now, there will be quite a few point of view shifts for this first Chapter so whenever you see this: -:- That means I'm cutting somewhere else. Trust me, I won't have too many of these in later Chapters (at least I don't think so at this point in time) should you decide to stick around. Now, time for the disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, only the characters you do not recognize. **

Chapter 1: Another Day, Another Aching Muscle

"Everything hurts." -Michelangelo Antonioni

* * *

Well... This sucked to say the least. My body hurt like hell and I was starting to get a little stiff from not being able to move around much. I suppose anyone would be stiff after being tied to a chair for an indeterminate amount of time with the only source of light being a solitary lightbulb above my head. So... What did I do to get myself tied to a chair and stuck in a room with rather bad lighting? Well, I suppose I shouldn't beat around the bush. I broke into the Mayor's house. Granted this was probably not my best idea in the world as he's a corrupt asshole, but nothing can stop me from my objectives. I'm just stubborn like that I guess... Heaving a sigh that hurt my ribs, the door to the room opened and in walked my latest interrogator. He was a big guy, most likely to try and intimidate me, and he didn't look all that bright if the dim look in his eye was anything to go by. His footfalls were heavy on the cement floor as he approached. Wonderful... A lumbering oaf who is most likely not going to be all too gentle with me. I fought the urge to sigh again. Looks like it's going to be a long day judging by that knife in his hands.

-:-

The lone lightbulb swung back and forth like a pendulum. The shadows being cast on the walls shifted and writhed with every movement of the light. Normally it would cause a frightening effect and scare anyone who saw it. However, this person was a tad different. Staring at the shadows, they found amusement in watching the shadows dance across the walls and ceiling of the windowless room. Time had become distorted and undeterminable. They could've been sitting there for ten minutes or ten days. Sleep came and went as it pleased and the crick in their neck was getting worse from the slouched sleeping positions their body settled in. Needless to say... They were getting very annoyed with everything. Readjusting their wrists in the cuffs, they tried to find relief of the stinging feeling of having pulled at the cuffs too much. Of course they knew that breaking the cuffs was impossible. It was just that they weren't too much in control of their body when knives were slowly dragged across the tender skin of their arms. Blood trickled down their arms and into the wounds on their wrists, making her wrist stick to the cuffs slightly. They wondered vaguely if they were going to die there... Sighing and rolling their eyes at the thought of death, they felt that sleep had come back to visit. The sole companion of this lowly prisoner had decided to greet them. Closing their eyes, they gladly went to visit their dreams of freedom.

-:-

Looking up on the mansion, a group of men could be seen in front of the wrought iron gate that lead to the cobblestone path to the front door. Apparently, the man who lived there, the mayor, decided to invite them over to "discuss" the men's behavior. Of course the leader of this group wasn't all that happy to be told what to do. So instead of a cordial visit, the mayor would be met with the exact opposite. The gates opened and the men walked through; the leader smirking all the way to the front door.

"Are we really going to rob them?" Someone asked idly.

"Of course," The leader said. "They were the ones who tried to kill us after all."

A few men snickered at the thought. Of course there was some initial suspicion that the mayor was attempting to play a game with them, but then they remembered who their Captain was. Trafalgar Law was someone who knew when others were attempting to manipulate them and often turned the tables on their would be manipulators. So, when Law had told the Heart Pirates that they were going to take the mayor up on the invitation, a few of them knew what was going to happen. Needless to say, the thoughts weren't pretty after what they had done to the local bandits the mayor had hired to "take them out."

Coming up to the front door, the large doors opened revealing a well lit foyer. Due to the size of the foyer, it might as well have been the house itself. Gold colored walls reflected the light from the crystal chandelier overhead, brightening the already well lit area. The tan tiles beneath their feet clacked with every step as they made their way into the study after being shown the way by a very nervous butler. The Captain looked over the house while they walked; noting the darkened landing of the staircase to the second floor and the hallways that vanished into the darkness of the house, it seemed that they only lit the foyer up like a roman candle.

Entering the study, the mayor was sitting at his desk with a horribly fake smile plastered onto his face while a butler clad in black stood by loyally. The mayor was a man in his late forties yet looked two decades older than he actually was. The overhead lights were intense enough to illuminate the oil on his shiny bald head and his beady black eyes were taking in the sight of the pirates that had just made themselves comfortable on the many seats in the study while his butler stared ahead studiously as he stood ramrod straight, belying any sort of impression that he was at ease with the pirates in the room. The mayor's eyes stopped on the young man with a white, brown spotted hat who wore a yellow and black hoodie with the smiling face of their Jolly Roger on it. The young man had taken the seat across from the shiny mahogany desk and was now looking at the mayor with a smirk on his face. Of course the smile didn't sit well with the mayor in the slightest. Ignoring the unsettling smile (and praying to God that his face was just stuck like that), the mayor settled down enough to speak.

"I hope there aren't any hard feelings about the bandits," The mayor began after a moment of silence. "I was just doing what I thought necessary for the safety of the town."

"Of course not Mr. Mayor," Law replied nonchalantly.

"Good, good," The mayor said, smiling a little. He was thinking that things would go his way. "Though I must admit, I was very... Surprised to see what had happened to them."

Surprised hadn't even covered the emotion he felt when he saw what had happened to the bandits. It was more like revolted. Most of the men had had their limbs mixed up. Some had legs for arms and others had two torsos. They were more like grotesque jigsaw puzzles now instead of men. Then there were the luckier ones. The ones who had escaped with only broken bones, bruises, and minor concussions. These pirates were very, very dangerous and the mayor was currently playing with fire rather carelessly.

"Yes, well I don't take kindly to being attacked," Law said, a glint of danger in his storm gray eyes.

The mayor did not catch the look in the pirate's eye. However, the butler did and his nerves steadily grew worse.

A knocking on the study door, however, got everyone's attention. Obviously peeved about being interrupted, the mayor uttered a sharp "come in." The man who appeared got everyone's attention one way or another. The lumbering man, he was well past 6'4", had thinning blonde hair, and black eyes. His pants were stained with blood, along with the green apron he wore. His long sleeved blue shirt also held smears of blood on it as well despite the sleeves being pushed well past his elbows. His face was more or less a blank mask of indifference.

"What?" The mayor snapped. "No answers?"

"No... Barely a reaction this time," The man drawled. "High threshold of pain apparently."

The mayor sighed, less than pleased with the news.

"It seems that our guest is stronger than they appear," He muttered darkly to himself before sighing. "Fine, dismissed. Try again tomorrow. They will break eventually and once that happens, we'll finally get somewhere."

The large man nodded and made his way from the room.

"I apologize for the interruption. We caught a little mouse four days ago and now we're dealing with a pest problem," The mayor wrote it off as nonchalantly as he could.

-:-

The sound of the rusted hinges on the door being opened roused the captive from their light sleep. The noise was loud enough that it grated harshly on their ears like nails on a chalkboard, but keeping their breathing controlled though, they kept up the act of being asleep. Two men had entered the room if the sounds of their footsteps on the tiled floor were anything to go by. When they started speaking, however, it was apparent that there were indeed two of them.

"So..." One of them began. "How long has this one been here?"

"Four days or so," The other said nonchalantly. "Damn... Her arms look horrible."

"I know right," The first one laughed. "Look at all the blood on the floor. There's almost enough there to remind you of a butcher's shop."

The second one laughed shortly.

"Damn. That's a sick analogy," He laughed.

The prisoner in the chair wasn't happy with the way they were talking about her. Granted they thought she was asleep, or rather unconscious, so they thought it was safe to talk about her. Oh, were they so wrong.

"You know," The second man started. "I heard that the boss is gonna show some rookie pirate what's what real soon."

"You mean the pirate that did that to the bandits he sent after them?" The first sounded skeptical at best.

"Yep. I'm not looking forward to it at all," The second admitted. "I don't want to end up with my legs as my arms!"

This rookie pirate, as the men put it, sounded rather interesting to the captive. However, if the mayor was seriously thinking that his guards were powerful enough to stop a crew of pirates, he had another thing coming to him. Though, she'd admit, the only reason why she was in this situation was because of the lumbering man, the one who had tortured her a little while ago, snuck up on her and whacked her upside the head. When she awoke, she was cuffed behind her back with her legs and waist tied to the chair. It was a crappy situation and she knew it.

"So... Where's the poor sap now?" The first one asked.

"In the office with the boss," The second said. "But enough about him. What're we going to do with her?"

So that's where the Mayor was. She had been wondering why she hadn't gotten a visit from him ever since her capture. Footsteps came ever closer to her and before she knew it, one of them was standing next to her.

"Not sure," The first one, his voice sounded right next to her ear now, began. "But I can't imagine that the boss will want to keep her around much longer."

There was silence for a moment. The only thing the prisoner heard was the sound of them breathing.

"Hey, I think she's lost too much blood and passed out," The first one sounded a bit too eager when he said that.

"Come on dude," His counterpart held a tinge of exasperation in his voice. "We were just supposed to check on her and report back."

"I know, I know. Get your mind outta the gutter," The other defended himself. "I'm just wondering if she's even alive."

A devious plan popped into her mind at that. It took most of her self control to not start grinning on the spot as the plan quickly formed in her mind. Loosening her muscles, and hoping that the bad lighting would cover for suddenly going limp, she let her breathing slow.

The effect was almost instantaneous; the guards took notice of her ruse.

"I don't think she's okay, Leon..." The first one sounded wary.

The second, apparently named Leon, walked closer towards his partner and took in the sight of the prisoner in the chair.

"You're right Patrick. She doesn't look good. We have to report this to the Head Guard," Leon said.

Then, the prisoner held her breath.

"Shit! She stopped breathing!" Patrick panicked.

Idiots... If they only knew that releasing her from that chair would land them in a world of hurt.

"We haven't gotten the information out of her yet! She can't kick it just yet!" Leon barked. "Get her out of the chair!"

Success was always a sweet thing to taste, and this was no different. She suppressed a grin as one of them unlocked the shackles on her wrist while the other cut the ropes from around her ankles and waist. As soon as the clanging sound of metal shackles hitting the floor echoed in her ears and the ropes went slack around her ankles and waist, her eyes snapped open. Her right arm shooting out, catching one of them by the upper arm with an iron grip, she threw the guard next to her into the one at her feet. Both of them crying out in surprise, they hit the wall with enough force to bruise their backs and knock the breath out of them. The prisoner got to her feet lightly and sighed contentedly.

"Well gentlemen, we seem to be at an impasse," She said smoothly as she inspected the damage done to her arms. Fine cuts had rendered most of the skin on her arms into a bleeding mess and the skin that wasn't sliced through was coated in blood; making her look as if she wore red gloves.

"W-What?" The one who had rammed into the wall first and the one she recognized as Patrick asked.

Patrick looked to be a young fellow of twenty-five. His blue eyes complimented his black hair rather well, she had to admit, and he retained the more boyish features of his youth with his high cheekbones and small nose. She assumed that he was the bigger idiot of the two for he fell so easily for her tactic.

"I imagine you'd want me to get back in the chair and sit there like a good girl instead of eviscerating the both of you and using your intestines to decorate the nearest tree," It was then that Patrick noticed her eyes. The bronze irises of her eyes shone even in the dull light of the lightbulb overhead. It was in those eyes that he noticed something that made his blood run cold; she was dead serious. "However, I have no intention of sitting down and my wish right now is to, in fact, kick both your asses and string your intestines up like garland. So, we've reached an impasse."

The way she spoke, so nonchalantly about killing the both of them, made the two young men fear for their lives.

"No wonder Boss tied you up..." The other, Leon, said. "You're crazy."

Leon was a young man of twenty-two. His brown hair and brown eyes almost gave him the appearance of a deer. He looked skittish enough to be honest, and his features were still young; but Leon didn't have that boyish look to him. She supposed it was because he was the more mature of the two, but nonetheless, their green uniforms would soon be stained with blood and there was nothing that could help that fact.

"No, I'm not crazy," She denied. "I'm mad. Mad that you tied me up, mad that you cut my arms, and mad that you had the gall to speak as if I wasn't there. A word of advice, next time you feel the need to chat about something, don't speak about where your boss is. Especially in front of the person who was sent to retrieve a certain item that your boss has."

"You'll have to get through us in order to get to him. There are sixty-five guards in the house," Leon said coldly. "You can't win."

A cruel smile spread across her lips. The young woman advanced towards the guards cowering against the wall. They were just useless grunts in the end apparently.

"Silly Leon. I don't need to win. I just have to keep from losing."

Coming to a stop in front of them, her bronze eyes studied the two of them closely. Suddenly, she was crouched in front of them with that same cruel look on her face. Of course it could have just been a smile, they really couldn't tell with the fist shaped bruise on the left side of her face and swollen cheek. It was at this distance that they saw her cracked lower lip and an even more intense look in her eyes took over. With an almost predatory glint in her bronze eyes, she reached out a blood covered arm and clamped her right hand onto Leon's left shoulder. His brown eyes were wide as he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

A few moments later found the ex-prisoner shoving the heavy steel door to the room she had been incarcerated in open. Her blood soaked clothes clung to her body as she stepped from the dark room into a bright hallway. The red wallpaper was glaring to her eyes that had become so adjusted to the darkness of the room, but it was a welcome sight. Humming a small tune, she spared one more glance to the room she had been held in. Blood covered even more of the room and the crumpled forms of two bodies were seen in the darkness. Smirking, and then wincing at her cracked lip and bruised face, the prisoner studied the cuts on their arms in the better lighting and hid a grimace. They looked even worse in proper lighting... And so did her clothes. Her jeans were dyed red from not only her blood from the torture she had gone through, but Leon and Patrick's blood from when she had given them a proper beating. She had just been lucky that the room had been soundproofed otherwise with the amount of screaming the two men did she would have all sixty-five guards on her tail. The tank-top she wore was spattered in even more blood, though this time it was mostly the dimwitted boys' blood.

Sighing at the sight of the amount of blood on her clothing, she noted the fact that it was also in her hair. Her shoulder length, dark brown hair was starting to stick together due to the blood drying.

'God I need a shower...' She thought as she took in her surroundings.

Left and right were basically the same at this point; red hallways with brown carpeting and sconces lighting the walls. She could already tell that this was going to be fun. Her eyes sliding back and forth between the two directions, she ultimately chose left. Upon walking in the chosen direction, she passed a window. It was nighttime; the darkness of the sky made the stars even brighter. She figured that the fact she was on a Spring Island made the sky seem clearer. Or maybe it was because she hadn't seen the sky in four days... It was probably the latter, but what she learnt was that she was currently on the second floor of the mansion.

"Stop there!" A commanding voice tore the ex-prisoner away from her thoughts.

Snapping her head in the direction of the voice, she spotted the green uniform that all guards wore. Rolling her eyes, she ran towards the much larger guard. Her sandals slapping against the floor, the young woman saw the red-headed guard's eyes widening as she jumped with her right leg out. Flying through the air, her right foot connected with his windpipe and the momentum carried both of them backwards. He landed flat on his back, unconscious, and she kept with the momentum as she tore down the hallway.

Upon turning a sharp corner, she spotted ten more guards at the ready. This time, some had guns and others had swords. Skidding to a stop, she growled lowly as the green clad guards yelled orders to one another. Looking around, she knew that she couldn't take on all of them with her body in the current state that it was in, she tried to find something to defend herself with. Of course, with fate being the bitch that it is, the only thing around her was furniture. Luxurious chairs made of hard wood along with tables that matched lined the walls. Most likely they were there just for decoration, but she'd make do with what she got. Picking up a chair easily, her arms stung with the exertion, but it was a life or death situation... A grin split her face in two at that thought. Oh, how she loved life and death situations.

"Alright boys, let's see what you've got," She said coolly.

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Click on the button below then! Next update will be after my finals which are coming up quickly. There's a lot more Law in the next chapter, I promise.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again~ As promised, this chapter has much more Law in it. Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece. Only the characters you don't recognize. A.K.A.: Any injured character up to this point.**

Chapter 2: Another Knock-Knock Joke

"Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects." -Dave Barry

* * *

As Law sat in the office of the mayor the only thought in his head was, 'What an ass.'

His gray eyes glanced to the clock at his left to note that the mayor had gone on and on for the past ten minutes. The pirate captain didn't know what about of course, as he stopped paying attention after the first two minutes of the mayor's pointless rambling. He was pretty sure that a few of his men were asleep if Shachi's light snoring was anything to go by. The last time Law had tuned into the man's ramblings, the mayor had been talking about his father and how he died and left the office to him... Or something like that. Truth be told, nothing short of threatening to spell out the location of Raftel could get Law's mind back in the conversation.

Out of the corner of his eye, Law saw Bepo nodding off as well. The polar bear in the orange boiler suit that held his Captian's nodachi in his claws was struggling to stay awake. The bear was seated between Shachi and Penguin on a leather sofa a few feet away near the fireplace. The only member of the trio on the sofa who seemed fully awake was Penguin.

"... And my father saved the town from the bandits by utilizing the force of 120 mansion guards when I was ten and- Are you listening to me, Captain Law?"

Upon hearing his name being called, the pirate looked to the mayor with his usual smirk. However, before the young man could answer a sound of knocking reverberated through the room.

Knock, knock, knock-knock, knock

Recognizing the ever famous "shave and a haircut" knocking style, the mayor blinked. None of his guards would ever dare to use that. Silence reigned for a few moments; only light snoring from Shachi and the gentle crackling of the fire was heard.

"Shall I see what that was, Master?" The butler asked, his hand across his chest in waiting.

"Yes, do see what that was about," The mayor ordered.

The butler bowed and stepped away from the desk. His polished black shoes clacked on the tile floor as he approached the large wood doors to the study. As sudden as the knocking had taken place, a sound of splintering wood was heard. Then, a sofa came sailing through the wooden doors, knocking said doors off their hinges and pinning the butler beneath them with a crash as the sofa soared over Law's head and hit the wall behind the mayor's desk with an ear-splitting crack. The mayor yelped as he got up from the desk with a start as he moved away from the desk lest there be any more flying sofas that come sailing through the broken down doors.

"Huh! I'm awake!" Shachi declared as he sat bolt upright. The ginger haired man looked at the door and then to the sofa behind the mayor's desk with surprise written across his face.

Bepo had long since perked up and was now on guard while Law was slightly curious as to who (or what) could toss a sofa through thick, wooden doors. A sound of sandals hitting the hard wood of the doors caused the pirate Captain to look over his shoulder. A young woman stood atop the fallen doors, her bloody arms crossed over her chest as she took in the sight in front of her.

"Knock, knock Mayor dear," She said in a mocking voice. "You seemed to have neglected to send my invite to this little party."

The mayor blanched.

"Guards! Guards!" He screamed.

The young woman merely sighed and then tried to hide a grimace. Hopping off the door, she made contact with the tile floor; her sandals slapping against the ground. The first thing rather noticeable about the young woman was the fact that she was covered in blood. Her arms were coated in the red liquid while her clothes were either spattered with it or outright soaked. Her shirt was more spattered with it than coated, but her jeans weren't so lucky. It looked as if those had been dunked in a vat of blood.

"No sense in calling them. I think I beat at least twenty of them on my way down. Idiots with guns, idiots with swords, and idiots with no weapons at all... The idiots with the guns were the most dangerous," She mused with a thoughtful look on her face.

As the mayor began stuttering, she took notice of the pirates in the room; her bronze eyes scanning their body language for any tells that they might jump her. The pirates lounged in front of the fireplace on sofas and armchairs located to the left of the now broken down doors. There were at least five of them in the room, four by the fire and one in front of the desk, and they all looked to be on edge, but nothing screamed at her that they'd attack her so long as she kept her wrath to the mayor and his men. Though she did spot a polar bear in an orange boiler suit... And a young man sitting in front of the mayor's desk who was just looking over his shoulder at her.

"Well, now that we've got all the formalities aside," She said, closing her eyes and trying to put an amiable smile on her face. It failed miserably due the left side of her face being swollen and bruised. "We should get down to business... Where is it, Caito?"

The mayor shuddered at the cold tone in her voice.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about..." The man stuttered.

Her eyes opened into narrow slits as she glared at him.

"Don't lie, Alderman sent me here," She informed him.

The mayor blanched even more if it were at all possible. Law couldn't help but notice that he looked more like a ghost than a man at this point.

"Damn it..." He backed up even further away from her. He just barely missed hitting the wall as he backed up in fear.

She sighed again, this time more in aggravation than anything else, at the current turn of events. She had hoped the mayor would cough up the items she needed so she could leave these godforsaken island.

"Looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way..." She decided with a sort of finality in her voice.

Running forward, the pirates were a bit surprised to see that she could move rather quickly even with her body in the state that it was in, and grabbing the mayor by the throat, she throttled him against the wall and pinned him there with her left forearm. His gasps for air were heard as he grabbed at her arm in attempts to get her to let go. She didn't; instead she pressed him even harder into the wall behind him that was decorated with gold wallpaper.

"Now... Tell me where Alderman's things are, and I might not hurt you too badly," She asked calmly.

"M-Might?" He rasped.

"Well you did keep me strapped to a chair for four days," She said as she looked at him blankly. "You can't really expect me not to be angry after that."

"I find that strangling someone isn't the best way to get information, Miss," A smooth voice interrupted their conversation.

The mayor's attacker looked over her shoulder to see that it had been the man in front of the desk who spoke. He sat in the leather armchair as if he was the owner of the mansion instead of the weakling she just pinned to the wall. The white and brown spotted hat of his shadowed most of his face, but she still saw his storm gray eyes watching the scene in front of him with a hint of amusement. The sneering face of a Jolly Roger was printed on the front of his yellow hoodie and she put two-and-two together; the fact that he was dressed differently than any other pirates in the room was the big clue.

"Hmm, so you must be the rookie pirate that Leon and Patrick were talking about," She observed. "And you're right. Strangling someone normally won't get answers out of someone."

With that said, she yanked the mayor off the wall and slammed him onto his mahogany desk. Her left forearm went across his throat as she pinned him down using her own body weight, her left knee resting on the desk for leverage. In a flash she'd picked up the letter opener that laid on his desk and pressed the tip to his right temple with her free hand. The letter opener was gold, a simple carving up the blade of the knife reminded her of waves, and a single ruby was set into the handle. It was an elegant design in her opinion.

"I think this is a better option if I do say so myself," She sounded almost proud of herself. "Now spill it!"

The mayor whimpered as he felt the tip of the letter opener dig into the soft skin of his temple.

"Better, but brute force isn't always the way to do things," The pirate was now wearing out his welcome.

She growled lowly as she tore her eyes away from the whimpering Mayor and looked at the pirate sitting in front of her.

"I'm not telling you how to do your job, am I?" She deadpanned. "I'm sticking to what I know here. Besides, I don't have much time left before the other forty-five guards make their way to this room and I'd kinda like to get out of here and take a shower."

"Your arms look like they've been through a shredder and you're concerned about a shower?" A ginger haired pirate in a white boiler suit asked her with a tone of incredulity laced in his voice.

Her brain finally processed the fact that the crew under the command of the pirate in front of her wore hats and white boiler suits as their uniform. Well, except for the polar bear that just wore an orange suit and no hat. Though, why on Earth would a bear need a nodachi?

"What can I say?" She shrugged. "I've been tied to a chair for four days, tortured, and questioned by someone who's literally dumber than a post. There's only so many drawling syllables I can take before I want to rip someone's throat out. That someone being Caito here of course."

There was silence after that little outburst. Scoffing lightly, she turned her attention back to menacing the mayor into spilling the beans. Giving the mayor her best death glare, the pirates in the room could practically feel the murderous intent rolling off of her at this point.

As she pressed the tip of the letter opener to the mayor's temple in an attempt to get him to break, the sound of a man groaning in pain made the woman look up yet again and towards the doors that she had knocked down to see a man in black hauling himself out from under the doors.

"Well, looks like Jeeves here is still alive," She rolled her eyes at the sight of the butler crawling out from under the door like some sort of bug and turned her attention back to the mayor. The butler hauled himself to his feet and gaped at the sight of his master in mortal peril.

"Master Caito!" He cried.

"Get the guards!" The mayor snapped.

The butler turned on his heel and ran for his life. The woman stared blankly at the door for a moment, a mask of indifference on her face. Suddenly, she hung her head and sighed heavily. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." She muttered more to herself than to the people in the room. "First the chair and now this! Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Caito, you do realize that you'd be dead right now if I didn't need your pea-brained mind to tell me where the hell the ledgers are!"

Dropping the letter opener for the time being, she grabbed the mayor by his lapels and shook him rather violently. His bald head snapping to and fro with the movement, a beat was established with every collision his skull made with the dark wood. His attacker was glaring darkly at the man as she shook the man in an attempt to get him to spill the beans.

As amusing as the scene was, the pirates were a bit concerned with the guards on their way down. Just as suddenly as she had started shaking the mayor, she stopped. The mayor hung loosely in her grasp, his head hanging as her bronze eyes snapped up to the pirates and something in her eyes screamed that she had a plan in mind. Looking to the young man still sitting in front of the desk despite everything, she studied him for a moment before speaking again.

"Ever hear the phrase, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" She asked.

Law saw her angle as soon as she spoke; and he was amused to say the least.

"What possible motive could I have for helping you?" He asked.

She gave him a crooked grin.

"I've memorized the floor plan for this mansion and can easily tell you where you'd find this man's treasury," She said as the mayor stirred in her grasp. "Of course, provided you can take care of the pest problem we'll be facing in a moment."

"Th-The floor plans...?" The mayor gasped as his head throbbed. "Wh-When...?"

She ignored him for the time being. Of course she could have told him that the great-grandson of the original builder still had the floor plans and with the right amount of "persuasion" he gave her the plans with little fuss. Now why couldn't Caito be more like that young man? He was such an easy person to get along with. All she had to do was threaten his wife and he gave her the plans without much fuss after that. Needless to say, she walked away from that deal happily and the man walked away with his wife in one piece.

"Oh, and remember that I said something about 'idiots with guns'?" She added onto her statement. "Well, from where I currently am, they'd be shooting at you anyway."

It was very true. The guards would most likely shoot at Law when they shot at her because he was still sitting in front of the desk. Also, there was something about this young woman that amused him. Maybe it was the fact that she sent a sofa flying through wooden doors, or perhaps it was because she was the most amusing thing on the island right now. The island, Inari Island, wasn't exactly known for being an interesting locale. Except when the Harvest Festival rolled around, or so Law had been told. Apparently that was the day everyone got drunk and passed out in the streets.

"I'll be holding you to that deal, Miss..." He may have agreed, but he asked for her name in the same sentence.

"Mina," She introduced herself. "Just call me Mina, Mister..."

"Law. Trafalgar Law."

Mina hadn't heard any whisperings of the man in any of the bars she went to in the past few months, so either he was relatively new to the Grand Line, or he wasn't notable in the least. However, she was betting more on the former than the latter. Considering from what she'd gathered from her former best friend Patrick, the man had a Devil Fruit if the description of what happened to the bandits was accurate. It was only a matter of time before the man in front of her rose to fame.

The mayor, however, was less concerned with Law's name as he was with Mina's. If she had been paying attention, she would've noticed that Caito went as white as a sheet at the mention of her name.

"M-Mina..." Caito repeated, gaining her attention. "You... A-Are Mina...? Y-You..."

Mina looked at Caito blankly. She really didn't know why she hadn't killed him yet; ledgers be damned.

"For Roger's sake spit it out!" She snapped at him. "You're stuttering like a drunk man with a hot date."

The mayor flinched at her tone and suddenly clammed up. Pressing his lips into a firm line, he refused to say anything more. For a moment Mina studied his face, looking for any signs that might tell her what he was thinking. Rolling her eyes and letting out an exasperated breath, Mina picked up the gold letter opener again. The mayor's black eyes going wide, she leveled the sharp object over his left eye, point down and gleaming rather ominously in the light.

"So, if you've heard my name before, then that means you know all about what I do," She said in an amiable tone. "And that means Alderman told you about me right?"

The mayor was silent as he stared at the woman menacing him.

"Answer me or I shove this letter opener into your eye," She informed him just as a weatherman would inform the public about an imminent rainstorm.

Caito flinched at the news; he knew she would do it too.

"Yes," He breathed. "Alderman has told me about you. He said that you'd work for anyone so long as they'd pay you. Or..."

The mayor trailed off. He swallowed out of reflex; the lump in his throat making it ever harder to swallow. His mouth suddenly felt very dry.

"Or what?"

Fate, still being the bitch that it was, decided that now was a good time to interrupt the mayor's interrogation with the appearance of the guards. Men dressed in green flooded the room and those with armed with guns took aim at Mina atop the desk and Law sitting in front of it. More of them congregated by the gunmen's sides, the gleam of swords were seen in the bright overhead lighting.

"I believe the pest problem has shown up Miss Mina," Law said evenly as he studied the predicament they were currently in.

"Well..." Mina began as she stared blankly at guards, never even flinching under the sight of a gunman and never lowering the gold letter opener in her hand. "This sucks. I was finally getting somewhere with this idiot."

To the ordinary person, it would seem that Mina and the pirates were screwed over in more ways than one. However that's what an ordinary person would think. The not-so-ordinary person would take note of the fact that Mina wasn't even the least bit fazed by the appearance of the guards and the small shift in body language of the pirates. The guards never noticed the small things though; they were too busy taking in the sight of their boss on the desk. And this is where they failed miserably as guards.

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Hit the button below then. Alright folks, take your bets. Who's gonna win this little fight? Mina and the Heart Pirates or the guards? I'd love to hear from you.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again. Yeah, I know a bit of a late update as fight scenes are not my strong suit, but I'll try to be a bit more consistent. I think Sundays are a good update day so I'll try for Sundays then. Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, that means I'd know what happened to Bepo and wouldn't be driving myself nuts over the MIA polar bear. **

Chapter 3: Just Another Day at the Office

"There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result." -Winston Churchill

* * *

As the Heart Pirates and Mina stared down multiple rifle barrels, a single glance would have sent any sane person running in the opposite direction of the current predicament. However, it might say something about Mina's sanity as she continued to pin Caito to his desk with one knee on said desk for leverage. The gold letter opener in her hand glinted in the overhead lighting ominously as it hovered oh-so close to Caito's left eye. One simple flick of her wrist would have Caito sporting a nice eyepatch. It would be an improvement in Mina's mind, but having him screaming like a little girl who was just confronted with a rather large spider wouldn't be the best for figuring out where Alderman's ledgers were. No, best to keep him... Pain free for the moment. Though his silence on the topic of the location of the ledgers was irritating for her, Mina currently had bigger fish to fry at the moment; technically forty-five big fish. Though the lumbering oaf of a man who was her main torturer was still absent from the lineup... She figured he was probably sharpening his blade listening to polka music. Why polka music? Because she hated it with a passion.

Law, however, was studying the situation and working out a solution in his mind. Granted it probably wouldn't be a peaceful solution, it was solution nonetheless. What he needed was his nodachi and a bit of time. He had neither at this point and was rather reluctant to move when there were that many rifles pointed in his general direction. He also didn't trust that the guards wouldn't be trigger happy if he made a motion to stand up. However, when a green clad guard made his way to the front of the lineup and cleared his throat as he stood ramrod straight it was fairly apparent the guards didn't want to risk shooting their boss otherwise they would've taken the shot and asked questions later.

"Release the Mayor at once," The guard in front ordered.

The man was a good six feet tall and clad in the normal green uniform of the mansion guards. However, the red armband on his left arm made Mina think that this was the head guard; or at least someone important. He wasn't the best hostage negotiator she had ever seen. In fact a cat might be a better negotiator than him. So, with no intention of listening to the head guard, Mina thought about what to do in this situation.

The mayor was looking on expectantly while in her grasp and it was plain to see that he expected his guards to win against a rookie pirate and a hired... Whatever Mina was. Truth be told, Caito had no clue what to call Mina's profession and neither did she. Mina just sort of retrieved the items that her employer at the time asked her to. Caito knew that much, but what he didn't know was the lengths at which she'd go in order to get those items.

"I told you to release him you shrew!" The head guard snapped.

Mina frowned as he snapped her out of her thought process. Name-calling? How old was this guy, five? Still, she didn't appreciate the insult and decided that now was a good time to start the game, so she set the letter opener down as if she were going to surrender. Getting off the hard desk, Mina stood behind the mayor's desk and planned what to do.

Spying the blue necktie around Caito's neck, she reached for the tie and yanked the mayor off his desk using said tie. Hauling the man to his feet, she quickly undid his tie, spun him around, and yanked his arms behind him. Tying the mayor's arms behind his back using his own tie, she hooked her right foot behind his left ankle and sent him crashing to the floor; narrowly missing hitting his head on his chair.

"Sorry," Mina began. "But I don't negotiate. I'm a bit too stubborn for that."

"You will regret-" The head guard began, but was quickly tuned out.

Mina, now hating the sight of the man in front of her, snatched the gold letter opener off the desk and threw it. It arced though the air, end over end as it hurtled towards the head guard. The man cut off his speech mid sentence to look down at his chest with wide eyes. The letter opener had embedded itself in the man's chest and was buried up to the hilt in the man's flesh. Blood began to pool on the front of the green uniform as his hand went to grip the metal warmed by her hands, but quickly fell away as the man crumpled to the ground. The other guards stood by; stunned by the sight of their Captain being felled by a letter opener to the chest.

"Forty-four," Mina announced somewhat happily; her bronze eyes rather amused.

Law, taking advantage of the stunned guards, got to his feet and faced the guards. His crew following his lead, the four of them got to their feet and prepared to fight.

"Bepo," Law commanded as he held his right arm out for his nodachi.

The bear quickly crossed the room and soon the sword traded hands. It was at this time the guards collected their wits and decided that it was time for the offensive. Seeing the shift in their stances, Mina made her second move.

"You might want to watch your feet," Mina said as her sandaled foot slapped against the edge of the desk. The desk crashed to the floor hard enough to crack the tile beneath it. Everything that was on the desk, papers, writing instruments, and a lamp were sent to the floor and the sound of the lamp shattering was quickly drowned out by gunshots.

Mina immediately took cover behind the desk; her back pressed up against the hard wood. Getting shot was not on today's agenda and never will be. She had more important things to do other than getting killed.

"Room," She heard Law say. A light blue dome spread out and covered the area.

'Looks like this guy is a Devil Fruit user after all,' Mina thought as she listened to the cries of shock from the guards.

"Damn it! This guy is a Devil Fruit user!" One guard gave the genius observation.

"How on Earth are we supposed to fight a guy like him!" Another cried.

Curiosity getting the better of her and the fact that there weren't any more gunshots drove Mina to pop her head up from behind the tossed over desk. Her eyes widening, she took in the scene in front of her.

The guards had somehow lost their rifles. Or maybe "replaced" was a better word because the guards with guns no longer held their rifles but rather an object from the room they were in. Mina spied a few guards holding umbrellas that had previously been in the holder that was located in the corner of the room and looking at it now showed several rifles in said holder. Many guards now held books from the bookshelves on either side of the fireplace while others held logs from the woodpile to keep the fire running. The twenty-five gunmen in the room had lost their rifles and had been replaced with the more mundane items around them. Stealing a glance in the direction of Law and his crew proved to Mina that this pirate crew was highly dangerous for being rookies. Law was smirking at the guards; in a sort of way that made Mina very wary of her new allies for the time being. It was a smirk full of contempt for the guards and arrogance. Oh boy was there arrogance in that smirk.

"I believe the 'idiots with guns' have been taken care of Miss Mina," Law told the woman behind the desk.

She blinked at him.

"I can see that," She said as she hopped over the desk and back into full view. "That's some parlor trick Captain Law."

As her feet touched the ground, the sound of clattering got her attention. Looking at her feet, Mina saw that she had stepped on the butt of a rifle. Looking up at the now petrified guards, she saw that one of them was holding the broken lamp that had once been sitting on the Mayor's desk. Stooping down to pick up the rifle, a plan of attack wormed it's way into her head. Grinning at the plan, Mina picked the rifle up and rested it across her shoulders.

"You know how to use a rifle?" A young man in a penguin hat asked.

Mina scoffed.

"No. I don't think I could hit the broad side of a barn using a rifle," She admitted as she took it off her shoulders and instead of holding it properly, she gripped it by the barrel and held it as if she were going to use it as a blunt instrument instead. "But, I do believe that there's another type of 'headshot.' The type where you get much more up close and personal with the victim."

Many guards paled at the look on her face. The crooked grin that she sported was made even more creepy thanks to the wounds on her face. That grin promised pain, that much was certain.

"Men, don't give in!" A guard tried to rally them as he pulled out his saber from it's sheath. "Attack!"

With that, the battle had officially begun. As the guards rushed Mina and the pirates, it became highly apparent that the majority of them had no clue how to use swords if their flailing movements were anything to go by, and the lucky few that had no weapons went down faster than lead weights being dropped off the side of a cliff. The pirates, who had no weapons for the record, dodged sword blades with ease and then took their opponents down with little work; even the polar bear, who could talk for some reason, was kicking the guard's asses. The pirates were primarily martial artists from what Mina could tell. Other than their captain of course. No, Law had't moved so much as an inch from where he had been standing and was currently swapping body parts around like they were puzzle pieces.

Now Mina was having a much more... Hands on approach. Swinging the rifle like a baseball bat, she knocked people out of the park left and right. Being surrounded by them didn't help any, but she was willing to fight. With another swing, the rifle butt cracked into a guard's skull; spattering her with more blood; it was just another stain to her already blood soaked self. The only reason why her tan skin tone wasn't readily seen was because of the amount of blood on her person.

"Damn... Her strength is something else..." A guard panted and held his shoulder. She had clipped him on the shoulder while taking another guard out. She was pretty sure she broke something with that swing.

Mina smiled as she whacked another man in the head with the rifle.

"Of course I'm strong," She said nonchalantly. "How do you think I've survived by myself?"

Mina had learnt to depend on herself for things. In her experience, no one really cared about the poor child standing on the street corner begging for food, money, or shelter so no one was just going to hand her food and money because they felt like it. So she did what she had to do; she adapted. As another guard bit the dust, Mina rested the rifle on her shoulders.

"This is a dog eat dog world folks," She said with wry grin. "You either live or die like one."

There had to have been at least fifteen of these guys left. It was obvious that the guards weren't used to a close quarter battle situation as they dropped like flies with one or two hits. Mina thought Patrick and Leon were just greenhorns and that's why they went down with little trouble back in the room; but seeing these guys made her all the more pissed off that she got caught by them. Well, it wasn't technically the guards she got caught by, but the big oaf who whacked her upside the head and sent her to the ground unconscious. Still though, Mina was getting angrier as the fight wore on and that was never a good thing for the people around her.

Whacking yet another man in the head, Mina noted a shadow looming over her. The men around her backed off as well and went to face the pirates as they assumed that the woman using the rifle as a bat would soon be beaten. A shiver traveled up her spine as Mina looked over her shoulder. Any trace of anger on her face fell to a look that anyone would describe as "oh fuck" as her eyes widened. Behind Mina was none other than the big oaf who caused the wounds on her arms in the first place. Spinning around on her heel, she faced the much, much taller man head on. His face showed no emotions; his eyes were trained on her and only her. To the side of him, Mina could see the butler or as she liked to call him, Jeeves, cowering in the doorway peeking out from behind the door frame. Mina stared up at the much taller man with hardly an emotion on her face. Either she was fuming with silent rage or she really didn't care about the man in front of her. The man may be tall with thinning blonde hair and eyes that looked like they belonged on a dead fish, but he was muscular. Barrel-chested and hulking, he dwarfed any average man; including Law himself.

"Olaf!" The whiny voice of the mayor pierced the room.

Mina turned her head slightly to see Caito crawling out from behind his overturned desk much like how a worm would crawl out from under a rock. Suddenly, her stoicism snapped like a twig underfoot.

"Olaf!" She repeated in a semi-dumbstruck manner. "You've gotta be kidding me! I got knocked out and tortured by a guy named Olaf!"

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself down as a few people stared at her. All Mina really wanted out of this whole situation was to finish the goddamn mission and get the hell off the Inari Island. Sadly, things weren't going as planned really. Finally collecting her frayed nerves after that outburst she sighed.

"Alright, I feel better," Mina said as she rolled her shoulders a bit to loosen her neck.

"Olaf, finish off the girl!" Caito ordered. "We'll worry about the pirates later."

"Fuck my life," Mina deadpanned as she watched Olaf pull his arm back for a punch. "Things can never be easy can they..."

Musings aside, she dropped the rifle on the floor seeing as she wasn't even a marksman and proceeded to back up from the man. However, despite his size, Olaf was actually a pretty fast guy. Her eyes widening, Mina attempted a dodge by doing a backflip. Her arms catching her as she jumped backwards, she pushed off the ground to right herself only for Olaf's punch to connect with her abdomen. Biting back a strangled yelp of pain, Mina flew backwards and hit the wall; knocking the breath out of her. Her left arm almost immediately went across her body to grip her side as it was suddenly very painful to breathe. Every breath she took was incredibly painful and felt like someone knifed her in the chest.

"Hahaha!" Caito cackled from his position on the floor. "Serves you right!"

"Ow..." She coughed out; only for it to cause more pain. "Think that cracked a rib... Or broke one..."

It was at this point that Mina noticed the bodies littering the floor. All the guards had been dispatched in one way or another. Many of them had been K.O.-ed by the pirates; actually most of the guards had been taken down by the pirates as Mina herself had only downed at least ten of them with her rifle-baseball bat tactic. The pirates looked generally unscathed from the battle itself; a couple scratches and a few bruises maybe but nothing to what compared to the damage the guards had taken. Quite a handful of guards, at least fifteen or twenty, had been made into human jigsaw puzzles thanks to the fuzzy hatted Captain.

Speaking of the fuzzy hatted Captain, Law wasn't the least bit concerned with the appearance of Olaf as it would be simple enough to outsmart the seemingly dimwitted man. Though he'd admit that the blow Mina just received looked rather powerful. Powerful enough to break bones and he wouldn't be surprised if the woman did indeed have a broken bone somewhere from that blow.

"Good. Now while she's down, kill her!" Caito ordered.

Olaf proceeded forward. His heavy footsteps echoed in the room.

"Change of plans Caito," Mina said as she struggled to stand up. "I'm not gonna die here. Though I don't think I'll be able to take this guy down..."

It wasn't that Mina lacked the skill to take him down; it was the fact that her body was starting to wear down. Four days of not having anything to eat, being tortured, and then thrown into a brawl wasn't the best thing for her body. In fact the only reason why she was still standing was due to adrenaline. Her mind ran a mile-a-minute as she tried to find a way out of this situation.

"Should we help her Captain?" The bear asked his fuzzy hatted Captain.

"If she asks for it," Law said.

Mina frowned and shot the man a look. He merely smirked at the dirty look she gave him.

"You might want to pay attention to your fight," A pirate, a ginger with sunglasses, said.

After the comment from the bear and his captain, she wasn't about to ask for help now; damn her sense of pride sometimes. Getting her head in the game, she broke the stare with Law and focused on the task at hand. Olaf was encroaching on her rather quickly and Mina was slouched against the wall holding her side. Setting her jaw she knew what she had to do.

'Use your size and speed,' Mina coached herself.

Righting herself, she pushed off from the wall and calmly walked towards the towering man. Olaf took this opportunity to ready another punch. His reach may have been impressive, but the thing with these types of fighters is that they left plenty of weak points. As the man launched another punch, Mina jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding another hit, and bolted for the man's legs. Sure it hurt like hell to run flat out, but Mina could handle pain. Digging her left foot in, her right shot out in a strike to the man's knee. Now, there's only one way that a knee is supposed to bend and Mina struck Olaf's knee so that it tried to be bent the other way so it knocked him off balance. Quickly jumping backwards Mina readied herself for another attack as the man went on one knee. Before he could right himself, Mina was airborne and had twisted her body around as she kicked him square on the side of his head, smacking his ear. With a now disrupted sense of equilibrium, Olaf was swaying a bit from side to side.

"Still not going down..." Mina said through gritted teeth.

With that said, she brought her right leg back slightly before bringing it forward to connect with Olaf just under his jaw. Snapping his head backwards, the kick sent the man to the ground. Oh how sweet it was to have revenge. Grinning widely, Mina looked over her shoulder at Caito; the man looked like he had wet himself. The subsequent thudding noise that came from the doorway sounded like Jeeves had fainted, and when she glanced his way the butler was indeed out cold.

"Well, well, Caito," Mina said. "Looks like you're out of options."

The woman stalked forward and it was highly apparent that despite winning the battle, she was not happy. The mayor tried to flinch away from her, but she brought her foot down on the man's chest.

"No more fucking around now Caito," Her voice was like harsh steel. "Tell me where Alderman's ledgers are. I'm a very busy person you know, and I believe whatever patience I had is gone now. So unless you want to end up like Leon and Patrick, I suggest you spill the beans."

Oh, she wasn't angry; she was livid. Tired, in pain, and rather hungry, Mina wasn't the least bit happy. In fact she'd been cranky the whole night. Caito swallowed out of reflex and stared up at her. Mina's eyes promised death for him if he didn't tell.

"They're in my bedroom," Caito relented. "In my desk, third drawer on the left. Please don't kill me."

Ah... Sweet, sweet music to her ears at last. Caito just sealed his fate the moment he sung like a little birdie. Though cowards could always be counted on to take the way out that they felt would let them live. Mina grinned ear to ear at the news; things were looking up for her.

"I can't make any promises Caito," She said. "If I find out you've lied to me, I'll kill you."

Hauling the man to his feet, she dragged him over to his chair, which was still upright amazingly. However, she decided against that and instead dragged him to the wall, gripped his shiny bald head and slammed it into the wall forehead first and the man crumpled to the ground like a puppet who's strings had just been cut.

"Any objections?" Mina asked the pirates from over her shoulder.

Law's smirk was still present. Though a part of him wanted to be the one to shut the mayor up.

"None," He said.

"Good. Now if you follow me, I'll let you rob this guy blind."

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send a review! And thank you for those who have Subscribed, Favorited, Alerted, and Reviewed. Next time we say "Bye-Bye" to Caito and the mansion. And trust me when I say the fight scenes will get a lot better. I promise!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, I did say something about Sundays, but thanks to unforeseen circumstances that went out the window. So, instead I'll just try to update weekly. Though I can tell you for a fact that the next one will be before next Saturday. Disclaimer: Again, I do not own One Piece; only Mina and her rather bad luck.**

Chapter 4: Another Average Night

"I've had a wonderful evening- but this wasn't it." -Groucho Marx

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Exiting the parlor with the pirates following closely on her heels, Mina glanced once around the foyer to get her bearings relative to the floor plans she had memorized and headed up the stairs. The stairs had the same red carpeting as the hallways on the second floor and the once polished railing now had traces of dried blood on it from when she had come down the stairs to find Caito. It was rather apparent from the blood that either Mina's wounds had starting bleeding at that time or it had been on her hands from the guards she had fought.

"The treasury is actually an offshoot of Caito's bedroom, so we'll be headed to his room," Mina let the pirates know what was going on.

Her mood seemed to have improved marginally after Caito had spilled the beans. Though her left arm was still gripping her side it was fairly apparent that her body couldn't take much more abuse before it eventually gave out.

"Uh... Are you okay?" The ginger with the sunglasses asked.

Mina suppressed the urge to sigh; it would only hurt her more.

"I was used as a human punching bag as well as a knife-sharpener for four days only to get involved in a brawl that may have broken a rib or two," She deadpanned as she continued to walk up the stairs. "I'm far from the meaning of the word."

Coming up to the landing, the brunette took in the sight of three directions: left, right, or straight. All three directions had the same red carpeting and sconces lighting the wall. With every hallway looking the same, the pirates were wondering if she truly knew her way around the mansion.

"How did you end up as their prisoner?" Law asked as Mina went to the right.

She stopped mid-step and the tension in her shoulders was easily seen. It appeared that she didn't want to tell them. Mina soon recovered and walked on with the pirates following her lead.

"If you have to know, the big guy, Olaf," She spoke his name with a sneer. "Managed to come up behind me and hit me in the head. Next thing I know, I'm strapped to a chair with the big lug as my interrogator."

She didn't seem happy about admitting that out loud if her tone was anything to go by. It didn't invite any further questions really... It seems her marginally improved mood had been brought down by the memories of being caught. Now all she wanted was to wring Alderman's neck for not giving her all the information he should have given her in the first place. Though if she had her way Alderman would've been dead a long, long time ago. Mina's shoulders sagged a bit as she rubbed the back of her neck at the thought of why she was working for that ass. Damn her luck...

The pirates were curious as to what caused her to suddenly seem subdued, but the fact that her emotions flitted straight back to angry was a bit more troubling. Her shoulders stiffening, Mina walked on without even faltering. Law was partly curious and partly amused by her actions. She seemed to be the type that didn't hide their emotions but it was still difficult to read her. Normally he managed to get a read on anyone and was fairly accurate with his observations, but she wasn't giving much other than her mental state at this time. Granted he had never tried to understand someone who had just been held prisoner for four days as most of his captives ended up dead within the first twelve hours. At this point, he was quite surprised that she hadn't ended up on the floor passed out by now. He was assuming she hadn't eaten anything in the past ninety-six hours and a normal person would be on the floor unconscious due to that fact. It was intriguing to say the least.

Mina came to another four way intersection in the halls and turned to the right before abruptly stopping in front of a set of double doors. Much like the doors she tossed the sofa through, they were made of heavy wood but just weren't as tall as the ones she had knocked down. The gold doorknob gleamed gently in the low light as she grasped the cool metal. A small smile spread across her face as she found the door unlocked. Swinging the door open, they filed into the room.

Caito's bedroom was just about as pompous as anyone would imagine. His king sized canopy bed was pushed to the right wall and a rich red blanket was spread across it. A balcony was located farther back in the room, white curtains drawn half-way so he could have some semblance of privacy as he looked out over the town. That was the thing about the room; Caito had a perfect view of the town located on Inari Island. On the left wall, not only was there another set of doors, but his desk. With a satisfied smirk, Mina walked to the desk to flick on the desk lamp. Before getting to work, she saw the pirates waiting for direction.

"The door next to me is the treasury," She said blankly. "Have at it."

"Thank you for showing us the way Miss Mina," Law was more than pleased that such a small skirmish would net him some cash. After all, food didn't pay for itself... Actually it sort of did since he was a pirate and he could always "bargain" if things didn't go his way.

Leading his men, and polar bear, through the door next to the desk, Mina was left alone to her devices as she rifled through the papers and books in Caito's desk. Humming a tune once again, she tried the third drawer on the left. The tune abruptly stopped and the smile fell from her face as she found it locked. Now, it took much of Mina's self control not to toss the entire desk into the wall in the hopes that it would break open. Not only would her injuries not allow that at the time, she also remembered that if she just so happened to hit someone (namely a pirate) with the desk, the pirate Captain in the other room wouldn't take so nicely to her injuring his subordinates. So, no desk tossing for Mina today. Instead she calmed herself down by exhaling and then doubling over from the pain of her ribs. Pain was always like a good, sobering slap to the face; it made you stop, collect your thoughts, and then make you want to snap the wrist of the moron who just slapped you. However with the man who cracked (or broke) her ribs currently counting how many knives it would take to fell a giant, snapping his wrist wasn't an option. Yet.

Getting her mind back to the task at hand, Mina figured that there had to be a key somewhere. Opening the unlocked drawers, she tossed papers, books, and other items over her shoulder without a care in the world. Trashing his personal desk was her way of catharsis at this point. In fact, she'd love nothing more than to swing from the tacky chandelier in the foyer or run a knife down some wallpaper as she ran through the halls cackling madly, but sadly she didn't have the time. She looked up briefly from her search when she heard crashing coming from the other room followed shortly by someone cussing their lungs out. Suddenly an orange tabby bolted from the room and out the door. Quirking an eyebrow, Mina looked from the open treasury door to the hallway where the cat had bolted towards; sounds like someone was afraid of a kitty-cat. Mentally shrugging, she busied herself with raiding the desk. Upon opening the top right drawer, Mina not only found the key to the desk, but keys to every room in the house. Swinging the key ring with the literal keys to the castle on her finger, she finally opened the drawer to her prize. Two leather bound books greeted her eyes and the satisfied smile found it's way back on her face.

"Find what you're looking for?" A voice called her back from her thoughts.

Startled, Mina snapped her head up to see who was talking to her. It was none other than the fuzzy hatted pirate, Law. She hadn't even heard him enter the room...

"Yes, I did," She said after a moment. "How about you? Enough treasure in there for you?"

"We found plenty," He said with a smirk. "Though most of the chests in the room are locked."

Mina's eyes went to the key ring in her left hand. It looked like there were some smaller keys that belonged to chests. She also wouldn't put it past Caito to just keep everything in one place.

"Here, try these then" She suggested as she tossed the keys over to him. "They look like they could help."

Law caught them with ease; his right hand closing on them so Mina could see the tattoos on his fingers.

_'Death?' _She read._ 'That's charming. Note to self: This guy is creepy.'_

Mental musings aside, the pirate captain looked at the keys thoughtfully for a moment before taking her advice and turning to walk through the treasury doors again.

"Though I'll want those back," Mina said as she picked up the ledgers from the desk drawer. Upon lifting the books, she found some stray beli at the bottom. "When you're done of course."

He made no motion to signal that he heard her and continued onwards before vanishing into the treasury. Curiosity got the better of her at that point as she wondered how much money Caito had. Stuffing the stray bills into her pocket, finders keepers after all, Mina followed Law into the treasury.

The room was bright; bright enough that Mina had to blink due to the harsh lights in the room. When the glare settled, the sight that greeted her was quite impressive. Quite a few chests lined the far wall; the dark wood looking hard enough to stand the test of time with several large bags of beli were piled up near them. Though a pirate, the one with the sunglasses and ginger hair, was already stuffing the large bags into a much bigger sack with a grin across his face. Law was standing near his subordinate that had decided to take on the locked chests. The man was hunched over the chests and fiddling with the keys she had given them.

As her eyes scanned the room, Mina saw china cabinets being raided by the penguin hatted man with help from the bear. They were going over the things that might be of value and stuffing them into a sack the bear had. As she looked around the room, something caught her eye.

As Law oversaw the progress on the chests, the sound of glass crashing to the floor flooded his ears.

"Penguin, what did I say about breaking things?" He said without even looking over his shoulder.

"It wasn't me this time Captain," Penguin answered. "And the cat only surprised me!"

Shachi laughed from his position as he remembered the face Penguin had made when the cat jumped out from behind a cabinet. It was one of those moments that made him wish he had a camera. Law however, instead of remembering the face his subordinate made, was more curious as to what the crashing was. Turning around, it was plain as day as to what the crashing noise was. Mina had decided that one of the pictures on the wall had been looking at her wrong and knocked it from it's place. The blood covered woman was crouched in front of the broken picture frame as she carefully picked through the glass to get to what had been in the frame.

"Sorry about the noise," She said from across the room. "But usually the only way to tell if they're fakes is if you can actually handle them."

"What did you need to handle?" Law was curious about what warranted breaking a frame to get to.

As Mina grabbed the edge of the parchment that had been in the frame, she gently lifted it from it's place and more glass fell to the floor, shattering.

"Maps of course," She said as she studied it. "Or more specifically, treasure maps."

Those were the words that made the pirates stop everything to stare the the woman studying the map; Shachi paused halfway through shoving another bag into the sack, Penguin almost dropped (another) expensive looking vase, and the man in the striped bucket hat stopped fiddling with the chests. Law crossed the room to look over Mina's shoulder; she was fully aware of the man standing behind her, and made no motion to stand upright. The map was old to say the least; the parchment was well worn, she could feel the fragility of the paper. Faded lines outlined part of an island with a compass in the right hand corner. It was only part of a map; the frayed edges along the top and left side while the bottom and the right had smooth edges.

"It's only part of one," Mina gave Law the information he needed so he'd stop staring over her shoulder. The man was creepy enough without his eyes boring in the back of her skull like he wanted to read her mind. "It's useless without the other parts, but..."

Studying it closer, she saw initials within the compass; the first letter was unreadable, it was too faded, but the last initial read clear as day. Scrawled within the compass was a "C".

"Huh... Looks like it might be one of Conrad's," Mina mused as she turned the parchment over to inspect the other side.

"Conrad?" Penguin repeated. "Who was he?"

The brunette snapped her head in his direction, a look of incredulity on her face.

"You've never heard of Conrad? Have you lived your entire life under a rock or something?"

Then it hit her. These guys weren't from the Grand Line like she was. Closing her eyes, Mina shook her head.

"Right," She said as she stood up, grimacing at the pain in her side. "You're probably still new to the Grand Line so you haven't heard all the legends about this place. His name was Simeon Conrad, the Captain of the Orion Pirates, and sailed the Grand Line over sixty years ago. He was called the 'Wraith Pirate' for his ability to turn to mist. He's dead of course, but that doesn't stop his notoriety to us Grand Line natives."

Ending her brief lecture on Simeon Conrad, Mina carefully rolled the map up. She had plans on taking it with her, but she didn't know about Law. Chances are she shouldn't have told him parts of the legend as he'd want the map piece, but then again, it was useless without the other parts. There hadn't even been any indication as to what ocean the island was on and the location of the other parts of the map were a mystery.

"You seem to know quite a bit about him Miss Mina," Law observed. "Looking for his treasure are we?"

Mina scoffed and then winced yet again. Damn ribs...

"Nah," She denied. "It got better things to do than chase some old legend to the ends of the Earth."

Law started to frown. Although she might not know his ambition to be Pirate King and finding One Piece, it still sounded like she was mocking the idea of piracy.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not interested," She continued as she turned on her heel to walk out the door. "I just don't have the time right now to go off looking for treasure. Boss Alderman has been running me like a dog for the past fourteen months."

That made the fuzzy hatted man pause for a moment. Again, he could not get a good read on her. Reaching the door Mina stopped for a moment to look over her shoulder.

"Well, as much as I'd love to stick around, I gotta run. I suppose I'll be hearing about you again in a bar somewhere. Later."

With that, she was gone.

"Are we just going to let her go with a treasure map?" Bucket hat asked.

"There wasn't enough information on the map, Sergei," Law said. "Besides, there's enough here for now."

"Yeah, yeah," The man grumbled as he shoved another key into the lock. This time, the tumblers clicked. "Ah, got it Captain!"

The night air was cool and crisp; and the feeling of fresh air was the best thing Mina had felt in awhile. Now, time to get off this godforsaken island. It was dark so there wouldn't be any boats running at this hour. Mulling over her plans to get off the island, she walked down the cobblestone path from Caito's mansion and towards the town. It was a short jaunt from the mansion to the town and as the breeze blew by, rustling the leaves of the trees overhead was a well known sound to the woman. The stars shone brightly overhead as the glow of the moon shed some light on the path into town. Coming into town, the lights of houses and shops were off, but some light filtered through open windows and doors. Going down the main street of the town, she passed by the local bar, the sounds of drunks singing songs off-key assaulted her eardrums and the smell of liquor was thick in the air thanks to the open doors. Apparently a few people were celebrating the Harvest Festival a few months in advance...

Mina's goal was the inn she had checked into over a week ago. The innkeeper was probably curious as to where she had gone... Coming up to the two-story building, the blue inn was well lit; welcoming back it's patrons from the cool night. Knowing full well that she looked like she had been through hell and back, Mina opened the door. Hearing the gasp of the innkeeper behind the counter, Mina rolled her eyes.

"A-Are you alright Miss?" The innkeeper, a mousy young woman with light brown hair and blue dress, asked.

"Peachy," Mina deadpanned. "Now, how much do I owe you?"

"Uh, 2,500 beli for the whole nine nights," The innkeeper said when she consulted her books. "A-Are you sure you're alright? I-I can call a doctor..."

Pulling the money out of her jeans pocket, Mina counted out the money and found that she had enough without having to dip into her already dwindling funds. Tossing the bills on the counter, she clomped up the stairs to her room to fetch her suitcase. The inn was a pleasant building; warm in Mina's opinion. The earth toned walls were calming and the hard wood floors matched them well. Coming to her door, Mina left the door open as she grabbed the suitcase by the door. Not even sparing a glance into the room, her hand closed around the thick leather strap of the heavy suitcase and she was back down the stairs without any hesitation. Her suitcase was unusual to say the least; it was heavy and made of durable, dark leather with a combination lock keeping her belongings safe from anyone who would pry into them. There were two straps attached to it so she could pull it onto her back like a rucksack. Stopping at the foot of the stairs to quickly put the map piece and ledgers away, she pulled it onto her back. Straining when she put her right arm through the strap, the suitcase settled where it always did; on her lower back.

"Thanks for the room," Mina said as she walked out the door; leaving a dumbstruck innkeeper staring after her back.

As Mina walked down the street, heading towards the docks, she still had no idea how to get off the island. Shaking her head she made the decision to steal a boat. However, she didn't make it that far. Suddenly the world was spinning on it's axis as she stumbled forward, falling to her knees. Her body had finally given out on her. Finding some dry amusement in how far she had gotten without passing out, her eyes closed and she was out before she even hit the dirt.

Law was highly entertained at who he had run across in his walk back to his submarine. There they were, walking along main street when they found the passed out form of Mina. Laying face down in the dirt, it was highly apparent that she hadn't made it far before her injuries caught up with her. As Penguin, Shachi, and Sergei headed to the sub with their spoils, he and Bepo stayed behind for a moment to decide what to do. The doctor part of him said to help her out a bit, but the pirate in him argued that since she wasn't part of his crew so he didn't need to bother. Before he knew it himself, he was rolling her onto her side so he could slide the suitcase off her back. Handing the heavy object to Bepo, Law slid his arms under her knees and behind her back as he lifted her off the ground; she hung limply in his arms. And with that, they headed back to the submarine.

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**Another one down. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send a review then. Next time we hear Mina's job description.**


	5. Chapter 5

**What's this? An actual update that's on time? Wow, must be a cold day in Hell then. Well, I did promise this one before Saturday so here it is! Granted I didn't get as far as I wanted thanks to this scene going on longer than I expected. Ah, well. Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece. Only Mina. **

Chapter 5: Another Unfamiliar Ceiling

"Don't accept rides from strange men- and remember that all men are strange as hell." -Robin Morgan

* * *

Waking up was always a hard thing to do. Even more so when your body felt like it had just been hit by a rampaging Sea King. Not that Mina would know what being hit by a Sea King felt like; she may be unlucky, but she wasn't that ill-fated. Groaning softly, the brunette rolled over on the bed she was on. Wait... Bed? Her eyes snapping open, Mina found herself staring at a row of beds pushed against a wall. Her bronze irises flicking around to the various things in the room, it was safe to say that she was in an infirmary of sorts. The room was rather large and open, metal cabinets lined the far wall, and it reeked of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol. Crinkling her nose at the smell, Mina sat up. Or tried to at least; she ended up back on the bed clutching at her right side as it suddenly felt a bit hard to breathe. Right... Asshole Olaf decided to deck her in the ribs. Her breathing returned to normal after a moment of clutching at her side and she struggled to sit up once again. Pushing off the mattress with her left arm this time, she made it into a sitting position.

As Mina's mind slowly woke up, she suddenly realized that she wasn't in her jeans and shirt, but rather light blue loose-fitting pants and an equally loose-fitting button up shirt of the same color. Since the cuffs of the long sleeve shirt were undone, Mina saw that there were bandages covering parts of her arms. Gently pushing the sleeves up, she saw that a good ninety-percent of her arms were bandaged. The few patches of her tan skin showed through wherever the big oaf had missed cutting due to the amount of blood on her arms at the time and the bad lighting.

"Oh, you're awake," A male voice observed.

Her bronze eyes flicked away from taking in the sight of her bandaged wounds to a smiling man in a white boiler suit wearing a red, plaid woolen hat with ear-flaps. It took Mina a grand total of two seconds to figure out what happened and where the hell she was. Looks like she had another fun-filled day with Captain Law in her immediate future.

'Oh...' She realized. 'Fuck my life, I'm on a pirate ship.'

A voice in the back of her head told her that she was saying that quite a bit lately, however Mina quickly stomped on the voice and focused her attention elsewhere.

"Since you're wearing that boiler suit, which is an... Interesting fashion choice I might add, I'm going to assume that you're a member of the Heart Pirates," Mina told the woolen hatted man.

The man's smile wavered a bit, but stayed on his face.

"You'd be right to assume that," He said. "The name's Astor and I'm a medical assistant."

"So are you the one who bandaged my arms then?" Mina asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Nah," Astor said with a grin. "That was the Captain. I have to admit that it was surprising to see him carry you in."

Now that was some interesting information there; she didn't know that Law was also a doctor. Though his knowledge of anatomy coupled with his Devil Fruit powers made him a rather scary guy if you just so happened to piss him off.

'Again,' Mina thought. 'A rather creepy guy if I do say so myself.'

It was then and there that Mina decided to play nice with the pirates. She had escaped one close encounter with death just to land in another situation. What was the saying again? Out of the frying pan and into to deep-fat fryer? Though there had to be a reason why Law would pick her up off the ground and tend to her wounds; and that was what unsettled her the most about the current situation.

"So, what's the grand tally for my injuries?" Mina asked; rather curious about the number of cuts on both her arms and about her ribs.

"You've got a broken rib on your right side," Astor started with her most serious injury. "I wouldn't lift anything heavy or do any heavy activity until that heals up. You'll be in pain for a few weeks, but a mild painkiller can ease that. And then come your arms... You've got a grand total of fifty-seven cuts; twenty-seven on your left and thirty on your right. I have to ask, did you get tossed through a plate glass window or something?"

Mina took the news of her injuries rather well. The cuts would heal and so would her rib, but the no heavy activity put a damper on her mood. Not really the thing she wanted to hear at the moment; she had been hoping that her injuries weren't that bad.

"No, I was used as a human knife-sharpener for four days while being interrogated by a guy who made a fencing foil look sharp."

Astor blinked; or what Mina guessed was blinking since she couldn't see his eyes thanks to his hat, but as he didn't so much as move a muscle after telling him what had happened to her she guessed that he was processing her words.

"Oh," Astor finally said after a minute.

Mina frowned slightly. That's all he had to say, 'Oh?' He's the one who asked her what happened... Whatever, she didn't plan on getting attached to the pirates anyway.

"Well, I'm going to go get the Captain," Astor told her as he turned on his heel to walk out the door.

"For the record, what time is it?" Mina asked Astor's retreating form.

"Eight thirty in the morning," He told her over his shoulder.

Ah, so she hadn't been out long. The last time she looked at the clock it had been close to midnight; and that was when she was leaving Caito's mansion. The sudden thought of Caito made her scowl as she reclined back against the metal headboard. That rat bastard. Ugh, no wonder Alderman was firing him. Well, it was more like Caito dug himself into a hole and Alderman was just filling in said hole... With Caito still in it of course. That thought brought a smile to her face.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your stay Miss Mina," Law's voice was starting to sound rather familiar to Mina at this point.

Glancing towards the door, sure enough there was Law leaning against the doorjamb of the infirmary.

"Hmm, well I've stayed in worse places than this," Mina said honestly.

If she were to be completely honest with the fuzzy hatted man, his infirmary would be the equivalent of a five star hotel room to her. Just how many nights had she slept in trees or on the ground? Right... Too many to count. Not that she minded or anything, it just felt good to sleep in a bed sometimes.

"I'd imagine so if getting captured is something that happens to you often," Law remarked as he pushed off the doorframe to walk closer.

A frown pulled on her lips as she didn't like what he was insinuating there.

"Normally I'm not as careless," She stated dryly. "But there are certain things I can't control. Like how much information my boss decides to give me."

Law noticed how she spoke of her employer. If her tone was anything to go by, it was safe to say that there was a mutual hatred of one another.

"Glad you brought that up Miss," Law stopped at the foot of her bed. "Who exactly do you work for?"

A thoughtful look took over her features. Her bronze eyes studied him for a moment; searching for something. Apparently finding it, Mina sighed lightly and then winced.

"I work for a man named Alderman," She said point blank. She really didn't care if the pirate knew who she worked for or what she did. "He's the branch head for the black market located in the earlier parts of the Grand Line."

"You seem rather willing to talk. Why did Caito have someone torture you?" Law observed her willingness to talk to him.

Mina gave him a crooked smile.

"Ah, well you haven't threatened me. In fact you've done the opposite," She said, her eyes twinkling with mirth. "I'm much easier to get along with when I'm not being threatened. Also, Caito was an ass and I just didn't feel like cooperating with him or his men. Now, my turn for a question. Why did you pick me up and tend to my wounds?"

Law smirked at her.

"I don't remember agreeing to taking turns."

"It was implied," She countered easily. "It's only fair after all."

"I'm a pirate, I don't need to play fair," He countered just as easily.

Mina gave him a serious look.

"Any other pirate would've left me there facedown in the dirt; maybe even take my belongings. But you did neither and instead brought me on your ship and made sure I got proper medical care. I'm just curious as to why, Captain Law."

She was right. A few of his men had asked him why as well, but they were more easily placated with a simple glare than anything else. There wasn't so much as a peep out of them after that. However, Law had a feeling that Mina wouldn't be that intimidated by a simple glare and wouldn't even stop her from asking.

"It was because I felt like it," Was his long awaited answer.

Mina blinked and tilted her head to the side. She then shrugged slightly and dropped the issue completely.

"Alright. That's good enough for me."

That was it? All that fuss and all Law had to say was the he just felt like tending to her wounds?

"I find the answer 'because I wanted to' the reason for doing a lot of things in life," Mina answered his unasked question. "Just one more question if you'd be so kind as to answer it."

"If you answer one more of mine," Law made a deal with her.

Mina let her head fall back against the headboard as she stared at the ceiling. It was draining talking to this man; her brain was working overtime trying to understand his motives.

"Fine, shoot," She deadpanned.

"What exactly do you do for a living?"

Mina's head snapped up so fast that she thought she'd give herself whiplash; she was utterly shocked that anyone would ask her for her job description. Most people assumed that she was just another one of Alderman's grunts that ran a ship.

"Well, I don't really have a job per se," She admitted. "But if you must know I'm basically a cross between a courier and an informant. In short, I'm just basically a glorified carrier pigeon. Alderman gives me the documents he needs delivered, I deliver them; he needs me to retrieve documents, I go through hell and back to get them to him. The bastard probably loves making me sweat."

That was certainly an interesting profession and it looks like she wasn't happy with her job either if that's what she thought of her job.

"Your question, Miss Mina?" Law prompted.

"Yes, where do we go from here Captain Law?" She asked the million dollar question. "I have to get back to Alderman after all in order to get paid for the trouble I went through on this mission and I'm assuming you want to go about your merry way doing whatever it is that pirates do."

That was a good question. What was Law to do with her now that they'd already set sail from Inari Island and were now en route to the next island? Mina couldn't exactly commandeer a passing boat in order to get back nor could she find one of Alderman's associates to take her her back; she didn't exactly memorize their routes. Only when the trips were too far did she ever memorize the routes of Alderman's "business" associates. Even then the chances of them cooperating with her were slim at best.

Without so much as an answer, Law turned from his guest and went to walk out of the room.

"I'll have Chase bring you something to eat," And with that, he was gone.

Mina rolled her eyes. Why bring her along when he didn't even have an end game? I mean it wasn't exactly rocket science to figure that she'd end up heading to a different island. Though Lostrowan Isle, where Alderman was located, was an island after Inari Island, the chances of the stars aligning so that both the pirates and Mina were headed to the same place were slim. Running a hand through her hair she grimaced at the feel of dried blood and dirt running through her fingers. Her eyes flicking around the room once more, Mina located a bathroom. Sure the chances are that it didn't have a shower, but it was sure to have a sink.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she got to her feet only to nearly fall over. Apparently not eating anything for- What was it now, five days? Well, not eating anything for an extended period of time was not the best thing for the human body as it tends to rebel when it hasn't been fed. Shaking off the dizziness, Mina then located her suitcase by almost tripping over it. Stumbling forward a bit, she grabbed the headboard of the opposite bed to keep her upright. Apparently some genius had the bright idea of putting a heavy, reinforced leather suitcase next to an injured person's bed and in their way instead of putting it somewhere else. Like under the bed for example; or at the foot of it for that matter. Cursing their stupidity, Mina grabbed her heavy luggage and heaved it onto the bed. Sure they said no "heavy" lifting, but her suitcase really only weighed seven kilograms; she blamed it on the multiple eternal poses, her log pose, clothes, books, and more random things than anyone could shake a stick at; there probably was a stick somewhere in there. Now there was also another unusual feature about her suitcase. Not only did it have straps so it could be worn on her back, but there was a lock on it; a four-digit multiple-dial combination lock to be exact. Spinning the four dial with numbers etched into them, the combination was practically muscle memory for her; five-one-eight-one was the combination. Each dial had zero through nine on it so there was almost an endless amount of possibilities if someone tried to crack it. The lock popping open easily, Mina rummaged around in her suitcase for a moment to pull out a pair of black pants that would actually fit her. She found that upon standing that the ones she was wearing were a bit too long and she'd step on the cuffs when walking. Tripping over her own two feet wasn't something she wanted; it wasn't that she was accident prone. No, it was more the fact that she felt more comfortable if she wasn't stepping on the bottom of her pant leg every time she walked. Then she grabbed her bottle of shampoo that she always carried with her, closed the suitcase so it reset the lock, and headed to the bathroom.

Clean hair always made Mina's mood improve; it was because there was no longer any blood in her hair that did it. Upon walking out of the bathroom with her hair in a mess thanks to the rough towel dry she gave it, another man in a boiler suit, apron, and wearing a black ten-gallon hat walked in carrying a tray of food. Mina's stomach growled rather loudly when she caught a whiff of warm food.

"Here ya' are little lady," The man grinned as he set the tray down on the nightstand next to her bed. "Cap'n told me the story, so take it easy when ya' eat. Don't eat too fast, ya' hear?"

Mina blinked at the man's accent. He could give any country singer a run for his money with that accent.

"Uh, sure," Mina said slowly. "Thanks."

He smiled at her again.

"Don't mention it, Miss," He waved it off. "I reckon that ya' want some privacy so I'll get outta yer hair for know."

With that, the man she was assuming was Chase walked out just as easily as he came in, leaving a confused young woman to blink at the doorway. It was only when her stomach growled at her that she snapped out of her small stupor. With that, Mina finally had something to eat. Sure it may have been oatmeal and a warm cup of tea, but it tasted a hell of a lot better than anything she remembered cooking. Taking the cook's advice, she ate slow and let her mind work out the situation she was in. She was injured, on a pirate ship with a creepy Captain, and more or less late for her meeting with Alderman... She was not looking forward to seeing her boss that's for sure.

Mina had been lounging on her bed, her left arm behind her head as she studied one of the ledgers she had gotten from Caito's mansion when Law walked in again with one of his subordinates close behind him. She immediately glanced to the hat of the man she didn't seem to recognize, it wasn't a person she'd met before if the green baseball cap was anything to go by; of course if the crew wanted to screw with her all they would have to do is switch hats around and she'd be none the wiser. But she doubted that they'd play that sort of trick on her at this point in time. She snapped the ledger shut and sat up straight as Law stood at the end of her bed like he did earlier in the day. The man in the baseball cap stayed by the door, waiting for his cue.

"Hello again," Mina said. "I take it you've decided to answer my question after all."

Law chuckled lowly before answering.

"You'd be correct Miss Mina," He said. "After talking with my navigator, he informed me that we'll be passing by an island while we head to the bearing on our Log Pose. Now, what is the name of the island you need to go to?"

"Lostrowan Isle," She said easily. "An Autumn island that's currently in the middle of Summer right now. I do have the Eternal Pose to it if you need it."

Law turned to his navigator for confirmation that it was the island they were passing by.

"She lucked out," The navigator mused. "We're headed to Tidenote Bluff but we're passing Lostrowan anyway."

It was sweet music to Mina's ears. Tidenote was a rather nice place to go, though they'd need to be wary of the sharks in the waters though.

"Careful of the sharks around there. They'll circle around you like no tomorrow; they just love people after all," Mina gave them a bit of a warning. Information was usually the difference between life and death on the Grand Line. Nothing sucked worse than being uninformed about anything on the ocean called the "Pirate's Graveyard." It was just asking for trouble. "I appreciate you stopping off at Lostrowan though. As long as you don't stay the full three days it takes for the Log to reset, you'll be in Tidenote in two days after stopping there."

"Well, we need some parts for the oven," The navigator informed her. "According to Chase it's been on the fritz for awhile and Inari Island was sort of..."

"In the sticks," Mina deadpanned. "Yeah, they aren't the leading island when it comes to anything related to machinery. No, they're more farmers than anything. You should be able to find a way to fix your oven on Lostrowan; it is one of the central hubs for the black market after all. Little-to-no Marine interference, plenty of ships carrying illegal goods, and pirates... You'll fit right in."

Mina had said the last part with a touch of humor in her voice. Ah, she loved it when things went her way for a change.

"No Marines?" Law asked rather curious as to why an island that was in alliance with the World Government would have no Marines or Marine base located nearby.

Mina grinned; still sporting the black eye but at least the swelling on her cheek had gone down.

"Alderman bought them off of course," She said before frowning. "Bribery and blackmail can get you far in life when you know how to play the game. I should know, that's how he roped me into working for him."

Ah, the greatest failure in her still young life... Oh, how she hated remembering how Alderman got his little hooks into her and made her work for him. He may have an evil mind that she respected to an extent, but he was just an ass. However, when Mina saw the smirk on Law's face she snapped her attention to him.

"He suckered you into working for him, didn't he Miss Mina?" Law's tone made her scowl at him.

"I'd rather not say," She said with an icy tone. "Alderman forced me into a contract saying that I 'cannot disclose the terms of employment' with anyone else."

Law still had that smirk on his face. She'd love to just wipe that arrogant smirk right off his face... However, that would mess up the agreement they just made and she didn't want to get tossed overboard for attacking him. Keeping a lid on her more aggressive side, Mina instead gave Law a rather dark glare.

"I-Uh..." The navigator brought attention back to himself. "I'll be needing that Eternal Pose though..."

Breaking off the glare, Mina reached for her suitcase again. She left it unlocked when she got the ledger, so finding the Eternal Pose was as simple as looking through the compartments where they were usually located. Sliding the Pose out of the compartment, she handed it to Law who then gave it to the navigator. Checking his wrist for the Log Pose and then the Eternal Pose, he proceeded out the door to give the new directions to the helm; leaving Law and Mina alone for the time being. With the navigator gone, Law reached into his pocket to pull out the keyring she had tossed at him the night before.

"You said you'd need these back, right?" Law asked her as the keys glinted in the light of the infirmary.

"Yes," She answered shortly. "Alderman needs those so he can 'take care' of Caito."

"Why were you at the mansion?" Law asked as he tossed the keys to her.

Catching them in her left hand, Mina studied him for a moment before answering.

"Caito was in charge of an outpost island," She said. "Basically Inari Island was where anything too important to be stored on Lostrowan was kept. Caito was suspected of... Bending the rules by writing false numbers down and basically selling things behind Alderman's back. I was to retrieve the ledgers so Alderman can compare them with the 'Master List' so he could decide what to do with Caito should he be found guilty. I got caught, tortured, and then I escaped and ran into you. The rest is history."

Law, content with the answer, turned from Mina and proceeded out the door; his heels clicking on the linoleum floor.

"We'll be arriving on Lostrowan the day after tomorrow. Take it easy Miss Mina, you wouldn't want to irritate your wounds," He said as he walked out the door.

Mina sighed, and then winced at the pain in her ribs. It was going to be a long two days.

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**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave a review then! Alrighty folks, important news here: I'm going on vacation for a week or so. Well, ten days to be exact. So, Chapter 6 won't be next week, but the following week. I doubt I'll have time to work on Chapter 6 while I'm away, but I'll probably get a few paragraphs in or so. So, see ya' in two weeks!  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey there everyone, I'm back from vacation! Well, I've been back for awhile it was just that college preparations got in the way of me sitting down and writing. Back to school for me in less than a month... Well, I won't sit around and bore you with the story of my life so onward with the chapter. Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece. Mina and the son of a bitch you meet in this chapter are mine though.**

Chapter 6: Another Meeting... FROM HELL!

"Tell your boss what you think of him, and the truth shall set you free." -Author Unknown

* * *

Mina found that the smell of the ocean always calmed her nerves and more or less made her content with just staring out at the horizon. Perhaps it was the fact that the ocean was always a symbol of freedom for her and many others. Piracy may not be her first job choice, hell if she had her way she'd just remain unaffiliated with pirates, Marines, or any black market idiots altogether, but if there was one thing she at least held a minuscule amount of respect for, it was the fact that pirates were free to do as they pleased with little to no questions asked. The sound of crashing waves filled her ears as the brunette stared at Lostrowan Isle in the distance from the safety of the deck as she reflected on the last few days with the pirates.

-:-

It had been an interesting two days to say the least. The first night was rather fun because somewhere around midnight, something became glaringly apparent for Mina: they were on a submarine. It had all happened when a blaring alarm went off when she was dead asleep. Now, there were several things in life Mina just didn't appreciate; being woken up was one of them as she was never a morning person. Oh, Roger help your pitiful soul if you just so happened to piss Mina off when she first woke up. Her victims usually ended up sobbing in the corner while unintelligibly muttering something about how they'd never do it again and that they would never be able to have children. It was a complete mystery to Mina why the ended up that way. Well luckily for the Heart Pirates the thing that woke her up was an alarm. A much better option as she at least had the capacity to distinguish a person from an alarm; so there was no one sobbing hysterically in the corner at least. Or dead. Dead was always an open option when it came to Mina's sense of retribution, but waking her up wasn't something that normally warranted death. No, to get her to kill you, all you had to do was majorly piss her off. Not a hard thing to do really...

When the alarm went off that night, Mina sat bolt upright and tried shaking the stupor of sleep off her mind; Astor, who had orders from Law to explain what the alarm was there for, barely had time to explain that it was just the signal that the submarine was going under before she had a conniption. Blearily asking "Huh?", Mina was given the information that they were on a submarine. Now that woke her up for several reasons: she had never been on a submarine before and it was a rather new concept to her and the sound of being submerged in water with only a shell of metal protecting them from the crushing water pressure and ocean of the Grand Line made her a bit twitchy. However, since Law was obviously a Devil Fruit user himself, the submarine was sure to be safe... She tried telling herself that but she still couldn't sleep. Also, the fact that her side was causing her some pain as the pain killer wore off around two in the morning; effectively barring her from falling asleep thanks to the pain and a growing sense of paranoia thanks to her minor case of claustrophobia. It wasn't so much that the walls were closing in on her, but more the fact that the walls were there in the first place. Luckily the infirmary was rather spacious so it eased her mind a bit.

With a sleepless night under her belt, Mina felt even worse the next morning when Astor walked in at six. Upon entering the infirmary, Astor stood there for a moment processing what he saw. She was leaning up against the headboard of the bed, clipboard in hand, and pen scribbling something down with fervor. The brunette had decided that six in the morning was an apt time to do some paperwork. Yes, Mina had paperwork to do; and yes, she hated it with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Mainly the forms were menial and repetitive; so it drove her up the far wall and back whenever she had to fill out a "Mission Report" form along with some "Expenses" form that asked how much she spent at the inn, on food, and bribes as well as some related costs.

"Paperwork?" Astor asked, his eyebrows meeting his hairline.

"Yeah," Mina said flatly. "It's all part of Alderman's grand plan to fuck his secretary. Basically, the more paperwork she has to file, the more often she's with Alderman, and you can see where this is going."

Astor wasn't quite sure what to think of that one. He wasn't sure if she was joking or not; though he'd bet that she wasn't.

"Did you sleep at all?" Astor asked as he walked closer to the woman still scribbling things down. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

"I slept for a little while, but then my side decided to start acting up at two in the morning," She shifted ever so slightly in the bed and grimaced. "Even if I could sleep I don't think I would've been able to."

She was a bit hesitant to say that the reason why she was unable to sleep was more the fact that her brain wouldn't stop counting the ways she could die on a submarine instead of her side, but it was true at least. Even without the submarine fact eating away at her mind, the pain would've just made it hard to sleep anyway. Mina now knew the importance of painkillers with an injury like this one; broken ribs aren't fun. Granted she's been injured in more ways than she cared to count but she didn't remember being strangled, tossed into walls (or trees), or even getting attacked by that tiger a few year back were ever this painful.

"Damn Olaf... Damn Caito..." Mina muttered as she stopped writing mid-sentence. Her knuckles turned a much lighter shade of tan as she held the pencil in a death-grip. "If I ever get my hands on Alderman..."

A dark aura surrounded Mina as she continued to play with the thoughts of death. A bead of sweat slid down Astor's face as he watched her mutter to herself. Then he paled at what he heard her saying and took a step back for good measure.

'Wow... She-She has a rather scary imagination,' Astor thought to himself. 'And she was going to do what with a pear?!'

Just then, due to the amount of pressure she had put the poor pencil under, it snapped in her grip as she barely contained her rage.

-:-

Mina snapped out of her reverie when she heard footsteps coming up behind her on the deck. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she found the talking polar bear coming up behind her. Bepo was his name, she reminded herself. Mina was never one for bears as the kind she met usually wanted to eat her face off, but since this one had yet to attack her, Mina had to say he was as close to "normal" as anything else on this ship. How ironic... Snorting to herself in amusement, she ignored the pain that the rib kicked up she sidled over (and away from the bear) a bit when Bepo decided to join her at the rail. His button eyes took in the sight of the island up ahead and he turned to the brunette next to him.

"Are there any girl bears on that island?" He inquired.

Mina blinked as she stared up at the talking bear.

"They have a circus," She finally said after a moment. "With bears as part of their act. I don't know anything other than that."

"Oi, Bepo!" A voice called to the polar bear.

Both bear and human turned their heads to see who it was calling to the bear. It was the man in the casquette hat and sunglasses.

"Shachi," Bepo greeted. "What is it?"

Shachi stopped in front of the bear and scowled.

"You were supposed to be watching her," The ginger stated. It seemed he was mildly annoyed by something.

Mina smirked and turned her head off to the side to hide it. She actually wasn't supposed to be up on the deck right now... No, Law had "suggested" she stay in the infirmary under the watchful eye of Bepo. However, easily giving the bear the slip, she had somehow found her way up on deck. Don't ask her to retrace her steps though; ending up where she wanted was more blind luck than anything else. However, she had made the generalization that she wanted to go up to get to the deck.

"I'm sorry..." Bepo hung his head suddenly depressed.

"You're so weak-willed," Shachi observed before turning to Mina. "And you shouldn't have pulled a vanishing act on us like that. The Captain's pretty much ordered us to turn the sub upside down looking for you."

"And I care why?" Mina deadpanned. "I just needed a little fresh air. Being cooped up in the infirmary isn't good for me."

"Yeah, well the Captain in a bad mood isn't good for us," The ginger shot back.

"And who said I was in a bad mood, Shachi?" That all too familiar voice came from behind him.

Shachi, paling considerably, turned to see that Law was indeed behind them; he was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"N-No one did Captain," The ginger stuttered before laughing it off. "I think I'll go see if Penguin needs help with- With the uh... The thing he was trying to do this morning."

With that, Shachi promptly vanished into the darkness of the submarine; much to the amusement of the woman still standing by the railing. Looks like the fuzzy hatted Captain ran a tight ship.

Law detached himself from the wall he was propping up and moved closer to Mina, stopping short of reaching the rail.

"That was some vanishing act you pulled," Law didn't even sound angry with her. What a shame; Mina was hoping he'd a least make this interesting for her.

"It comes with practice," Was all she said on the matter before turning back towards the rail to look out at Lostrowan.

Law noticed that she was looking at the island with a mixture of dread and annoyance.

"I take it you aren't too happy to be going back," Law remarked.

Mina rolled her eyes.

"I'm not looking forward to being chewed out by my boss," She sounded less than pleased by the idea. "Even though I don't have time limits on my 'missions', he still likes everything done quickly and quietly."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the mission involving Caito's ledgers was anything but quickly and quietly done. Over a week to get the books and then massacring the mansion was anything but quiet. Mina was screwed when she met up with Alderman. It meant docked pay for her; something she probably couldn't afford. Alderman, the evil, evil bastard he was, was attempting to make Mina desperate for money so he could extend the contract another 18 months where he could pay her a fraction of what he actually payed the "real" employees.

"Are you all right Miss Mina?" Law asked her once he saw the dark look on her face. She had begun glowering at the island.

"Peachy," Mina said through clenched teeth. "Just thinking about how I'm probably going to get killed after I murder Alderman for docking my pay... Again!"

"You really don't like that man," Law observed.

Turning on her heel, Mina faced the pirate captain with a furious look on her face; Law didn't expect such a knee-jerk reaction from her.

"Don't like?!" She snarled loudly, her face flushing with rage. "I fucking hate that evil bastard! He can go die in a fucking ditch for all I care!"

Now quietly seething, Mina turned back to the rail and left Bepo to nurse his strained eardrums by putting his paws over his ears. She was very loud when she was angry; and setting her off didn't seem that hard to do. To spare the bear's eardrums from any further assault Law dropped the issue completely.

"We'll be arriving in half an hour," Law told the angry young woman.

Her rage suddenly dropped and Mina hung her head.

"Wonderful..." She muttered to herself before sighing. Now that she had gotten used to the pain, she didn't even flinch when her rib started hurting. "Another thirty minutes and I'll be back where I started."

With that, Law and Bepo left Mina to her sulking.

-:-

Mina watched with interest as the Heart Pirates docked their submarine at Lostrowan's port city, Shathen. They all moved independently of one another with their assignments, but it didn't take a genius to see that the crew worked together, some of them joked as they raised sails. Laughter and conversation ringing out across the deck as they worked on the task at hand. Mina was leaning against the cabin wall and staying out of their way with her suitcase by her feet. Wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt and one of her only pairs of jeans without blood on them, Mina's bandaged arms stood out against her tan skin and the bruises on her face had begun to fade. They were healing quite nicely according to Law and while her rib still hurt like hell, as long as she didn't do anything too stupid or too strenuous it would be fine in a matter of weeks.

When the men on the deck started jumping over the rail and onto the wooden dock below, Mina took that as her cue to leave. Swinging the suitcase onto her back, she hopped from the railing to the dock without so much as a flinch. Her sandals, cleaned of blood, slapped against the wood as the familiar smells of the island came back to her. The docks always smelled like a mixture of sweat and fish. It was slightly disgusting to her, but she had smelled a lot worse than that in her many years of traveling. Lostrowan island was one of the more heavily populated islands on the Grand Line. People congregated by the sea thanks to the fishing industry and only those who sought adventure or solitude went towards the heart of the island where a dormant volcano was located. The volcano had been dormant for centuries now so trees blanketed the slope of the mountain as they did much of the uninhabited parts of the island. Shathen Port was mostly a flat location with businesses lining main street while the side streets had more out of the way businesses and apartment buildings. However, there was one thing that stood out against the dormant volcano looming in the distance. It was a mansion at the end of Main Street and was Alderman's headquarters.

With the Heart Pirate's escort completed, Mina started down the street without so much as a glance backwards. Suddenly, the pressure of another hand wrapped around her left wrist. However, as her wrist was grabbed, she reacted. Spinning around, she prepared to nail the person in the gut with a punch, however a calloused hand with the letters D.E.A.T.H tattooed on them closed over her fist and barred her from going through with the punch. Mina stared at the sneering jolly roger on his yellow hoodie before she looked up to see the calm face of Law. He wasn't even fazed that she tried to punch him in the gut.

"Are you still going to punch me, Miss Mina?" Law asked with humor laced in his voice; now having possession of both her hands.

"I'm thinking about it," She shot back at him. "It is what you get for coming up behind someone and grabbing their wrist."

His smirk widened.

"I just wanted to get your attention before you up and vanished on me," He said smoothly before letting go of her fist, he kept his grip on her wrist though.

Mina put her fist down and straightened out her stance as Law let go of her other hand when he saw that she was sticking around and wasn't going to blow him off.

"What for?" Mina asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You seem unhappy here," Law stated the obvious. "Why stay somewhere you don't like being?"

"Stop beating around the bush and say what you have to say Law," Mina said flatly.

He chuckled.

"How about you join my crew, Miss Mina?" Law asked her.

The brunette stared at the pirate captain, her bronze eyes wide. Piracy? Well, that was certainly a job. There was a certain ring to it and Mina couldn't help but glancing at the glaring yellow submarine sitting at the docks. Yellow submarine and a yellow hoodie... Mina figured out his favorite color in a flash. Shoving those ideas aside, she thought about it a bit more. Law, despite being creepy as hell in her opinion, seemed like the much better option to go with than Alderman. The lesser of two evils as you'd put it? The rest of the crew seemed like they were alright and some of the more stable people you'd meet on an ocean like the Grand Line and despite her skepticism about the safety of the submarine, the fact that she got to Lostrowan in one piece was enough to put some of those fears to rest. She could always get used to it after all... Then the nagging voice of reality gnawed at the back of her mind and as much as she wanted to ignore it, to crush it beneath the soles of her sandals, the little bugger was persistent.

"I can't," Mina said, making Law frown. "Alderman has me under contract. I can't leave otherwise he sends his dogs after me and drags me back kicking and screaming."

Silence followed for another moment.

"I owe him, Law," Mina continued. "I sort of have a policy about not falling into debt. But the point is I still owe that son of a bitch. For another three weeks that is and I do sort of owe you for helping me out still."

Mina smirked at that thought before turning around to continue walking.

"So, after three weeks, will the invite still be there?" Mina asked, looking over her shoulder at the pirate Captain.

"Of course," Law said with his usual smirk.

That made Mina grin over her shoulder.

"Alright. Three weeks and I'll catch up. See ya' then Captain," Mina said as she waved.

Law watched her vanish into the crowd with a smirk. The fuzzy hatted captain knew she was hiding something about her employment with Alderman, but it didn't matter. He'd still get his way in the end and that's all that really mattered to him. With that, Law went back to his crew.

-:-

Oh would Mina love to be anywhere but here. Staring up at the gates of Alderman's mansion, she wondered if it was too late to throw the ledgers over the wall and run. The word "hate" didn't really cover her feeling about the job she had. It wasn't the job as it was more the man she had to deal with. Alderman was twisting her arm, she loathed to admit it but it was true. He was twisting her arm and forcing her to work for him. That's one of the things she hated; being forced to do something when she obviously had no interest in doing whatever it was.

With the iron gates of Alderman's heavily armed mansion opening, Mina sighed and walked through and entered the courtyard. The cobblestones lead to the front door, but Alderman wasn't inside on this particular day. Following one of his random guards to the garden, Mina was met with the sight of her boss sitting on his ass and eating lunch. Alderman was a man with power, and he carried himself as such. He also wore a suit everyday of the week and she was pretty sure he even slept in it. Graying black hair and a defined face made him almost handsome to other women if him having at least five wives in his lifetime was anything to go by. Strange thing was, there was never a divorce. Just, "accidents." Being a widower five times over was suspicious in Mina's opinion, but hey, she could always be wrong. He could just have really, really bad luck when it came to his wives... Oh, who was she kidding. This man was psychotic and she worked for him! Granted she had a feeling working for pirates wouldn't be any better, but at least she'd be on the move again. Staying in one place was boring.

Standing five feet away, the brunette waited for Alderman to acknowledge her presence. If she spoke to him, he'd just ignore her so she had to wait for him to speak to her first. "Speak only when spoken to" was one of the first rules she learnt from the bastard.

"You're late," The boss remarked.

Mina snorted.

"You'll read all about that in my reports," She said.

His eyes flicked up from the steak he was eating to bore into Mina's bronze ones. She swallowed out of reflex; it suddenly felt a bit hard to breathe. This man scared her for a reason; she saw firsthand what he did to the people who displeased him. However, Mina knew that he wouldn't hurt her as long as he still viewed her as an asset and not a risk.

"I got caught," She admitted much to her boss's disappointment.

His silverware clanking to the plate, he took the napkin out of his lap and stood up. Closing the five feet with nary a word, he walked past her.

"Not acceptable," He said. "I hired you to stay out of sight and to complete your missions in shadow. How hard can that be for someone with your talents?"

"Hired? You basically blackmailed me into working for you," Mina disputed, turning to face the man. "And how can I know that Caito had over sixty guards in his mansion when you don't give me the proper information? Also, if you aren't happy with the way I do my job then fire me! I paid back my debts over six months ago. Plus interest."

"Do no argue with me Mina," Alderman ordered. "You are to do as I say until your contract is up."

"At least I got what you asked for," Mina said as she pulled her suitcase off her back.

Quickly undoing the locks, Mina grabbed the ledgers and clipboard from the top of her suitcase and slammed the lid shut. Walking to the table she dropped the items onto the marble table.

"Caito's a liar by the way," Mina spat as she collected her suitcase off the ground. "He's been taking you for a ride all along."

"I will deal with him as I see fit," Alderman said. "Now, go wait for further orders. I will have Juliet look over your paperwork and I will reimburse you for your own expenses. After I collect rent and my cut of course."

"Of course," Mina said as she stalked out of the courtyard.

That man infuriated her to no end. More or less storming to her apartment building, she hoped someone would piss her off. Oh how she wanted to punch someone's lights out. Much to her disappointment, no one so much as crossed her path on her way "home." The apartment building was in a sort of crappy neighborhood; it was low rent but Alderman owned the building so he took her rent out of her already low payment. It was a five floor apartment complex and Mina lived on the third floor. Clomping up the stairs to her run-down apartment, she unlocked her door and threw her suitcase into the room. There was a reason why it needed to be durable; she manhandled the poor object more often than not.

Flicking the lights on, the sight that met Mina's eyes was a pathetic one. The apartment was wall to wall wood floors with wood paneling. No photos lined the walls, there were no curtains, and there was barely any furniture in the place. A table, one chair, a bed, and a small kitchen was the count for the place. Then there was the bathroom with the standard toilet and shower. Looking to her right she saw her bed and had a view of the town as well as part of the ocean through the window above the bed. To her left was the kitchen that she had left in a state of disarray. Dishes from well over a week ago sat in the sink... Needless to say, Mina wasn't a homemaker. She may be able to do some housework and knew some basic skills like sewing, but she couldn't care less about things like interior decorating so long as there was some semblance of matching colors in a room. Rubbing the back of her neck and sighing, Mina closed the door behind her using her heel and then promptly went over to her bed. Being careful not to hurt her rib, she laid facedown on the bed that was more or less in the same state as her kitchen.

Now, if Mina had known what was going to happen in the weeks to come, she would've booked it back to Law's submarine faster than a bat out of hell. If she thought fate was a bitch, wait until she met it's sister: life. Oh, now that was the biggest bitch of all and it couldn't wait to start playing with her. But for now, it was just content to let Mina lay on her bed and curse Alderman to the fiery pits of hell.

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send a review then! I'd love to hear from you guys. Next time, Mina has some fun. Of course my definition of fun when it comes to Mina usually includes torture of some sort so I'm sure she won't think it's fun. Next chapter also signals the end of the first arc. I'd better get cracking then. Bye bye~!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Wow, an update on time? Haha, I think I'm getting good at this whole update on time thing. Anyway, even with everything that happened this week I still managed to get this chapter done. It's been a bit hard lately... Anywho, I do not own One Piece! Mina's mine though. Anyone who you don't recognize as canon are mine too. Oh, another thing: There's a lot of swearing in this one...**

Chapter 7: Another Chance Encounter

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." -Jean de La Fontaine

* * *

One week. That was all that was left with Mina's contract with Alderman and then she could go catch up with Law. However, the courier was wondering if that was really the best idea going from one job to the next. Alderman was an asshole and had proved to be an even bigger one these past two weeks. Mina was just tired of it now. Tired of being worked like the dog she wasn't, tired of not getting paid enough to even buy a loaf of bread sometimes, and just plain tired of dealing with black market morons. She needed a vacation and tracking down Law seemed an awful lot like work for her. The pirate had earned a bounty last week if the wanted poster she yanked off the wall in a bar was anything to go by. Apparently Law had a pretty bounty of 88 million sitting on his head. A respectable bounty in Mina's opinion but that also came with bounty hunters and rival pirates as well as the Marines looking to pick a fight with the Heart Pirates. And if there was one organization that she could choose to avoid for the rest of her natural life, it was the Marines. Being a pirate would equal Marines coming out of the woodwork at any given time which would then conflict with Mina's wishes to never see another Marine again as long as she lived.

The sound of rapid footsteps snapped Mina out of her pondering and she dashed behind an open door for cover. Mina was currently on another job; probably her last big job for the asshole and boy was this one a doozy. Her mark's name this time around was Enki and he was one of Alderman's business associates; a very important business associate. Enki was second in command and actually helped Alderman build his black market empire from the ground up. This man was nothing like Caito and Mina wasn't taking any chances this time. Enki's guards were actually functional as people instead of being hulking oafs who just hit hard and asked questions later once they tied you to a chair. No, these men would shoot to kill if they ever thought their boss was in danger. Now why couldn't Mina have been hired by Enki? It seemed like he actually knew how to treat his employees if they were loyal enough to search every inch of this sprawling estate for her. Enki's men knew that there was an intruder, they just couldn't catch her. Mina had taken precautions with this mission; namely sitting in front of the mansion in a tree to study who came and went for three days. Then there were the preliminary break-ins and simple reconnaissance. Basically it took her five days in order to get to this point and Mina was making damn well sure that she didn't get caught and strapped to a chair. Chances are, knives wouldn't be the only thing she'd see if she got caught and her arms had healed up so nicely too; hardly any scarring. Sure there were some faint lines here and there where her little ordeal was documented, but Law had cleaned her wounds nicely. Her side still hurt every now and again, but it had become manageable so long as she didn't strain herself.

Peaking out from behind the door, Mina saw that the coast was clear. This mansion was less tacky than Alderman's and Caito's combined with the pale walls with a touch of green in the paint and light blue carpeting had the mansion feeling light and airy. Feeling at peace with strolling down the wide hallways, Mina kept her ears open and her eyes peeled for any sort of guard activity. Suddenly, the power was cut; the well illuminated hallways went dark and Mina was left with the feeling that something was not right in the mansion. Her bronze eyes shifting back and forth, she couldn't make out much thanks to the sudden change in lighting. Ducking behind a suit of armor that Enki had collected, Mina waited until her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She also kept searching for any sort of noise in the mansion; anything to cue her in on what was happening. There was nothing; not even the faint sounds of guards could be heard. Something was not right and she knew that she should just duck out of there, but she was so close to her target that she couldn't get spooked and run out like a chicken. Normally she'd act on those instincts to get the hell out of there, but ignoring those feelings she crept down the hallway. Coming up to a corner, she sidled along the edge of the wall and peeked around the corner; there was nothing. Keeping her eyes open for any sort of movement, Mina finally reached the doors to Enki's office as she rounded the corner. As she walked to the doors, she kicked something; immediately jumping back, she surveyed the floor to find a gun. She blinked at it in confusion. Why would there be a gun on the floor before Enki's office?

Gently picking it up, the wood grain was cool in her hands and the gunpowder was fresh. Despite not liking guns at all, Mina could tell that this one hadn't even been fired recently. Shaking her head, Mina stood up and knocked on the office door; the light thudding resounded in the hallway eerily. A shudder ran up Mina's spine and her instincts told her to get the fuck away from the mansion. However, having come too far just to turn back, Mina grasped the knob of the door to find it unlocked; it opened easily. Going in and closing the door behind her, Mina found that the office was dimly lit due to the power outage, but thanks to a literal wall of windows, the fading rays of sunlight shone through; it was dusk now and the sunlight was fading fast so the illumination would only last for twenty minutes at best. The office was large with Enki's desk towards the back of the room in front of the windows. The walls were decorated with pictures of places Mina had never seen and even doubted their existence, china cabinets held rare items and statuettes from ruined civilizations, and a bar was located off to the right. A very tempting idea, but Mina decided against that little decision; she was still on the job after all.

Looking at the desk, she found Enki's wing-back chair facing away from the doors to his office and looking out the window. Figuring that the old man, Enki was well into his sixties, was either not there or had fallen asleep looking out the window, Mina approached the desk with the gun still in her hand. It was at her side, but the fact that she had it put her nervous mind at ease.

"Alright Enki, if you're here speak up," Mina more or less ordered him. "Alderman sent me to get some paperwork from you."

There was no answer, but as she stood in front of the desk Mina saw a hand resting on the armrest of his chair.

"I know Alderman's an ass, but pretending I'm not here won't get us anywhere," She sighed. "He told me to get the paperwork without you knowing, but I figured you could just give it to me and call off your guards so I can get back to the idiot without risking my neck."

Still, there was no answer. Perplexed, Mina went around the desk to look at the man herself and then wished she hadn't. The buzz of lights turning on barely registered in her mind as she took in the sight in front of her. Red stained the brown leather chair as it ran from a wound on his head. The trail started at his temple and ran down his arm and chest. Thankfully the man's eyes were closed as his face rested against the side of the chair. Enki was dead to a single gunshot wound to his head. The gun suddenly feeling heavy in her hand, Mina went to place it on the desk when the thundering sound of people breaking down the door invaded her mind. More than twenty armed guards wearing black suits and sunglasses spilled in from the hallway with all the subtlety of stampeding bulls and aimed their guns at Mina's frozen form. She was as still as a statue and had paled considerably at the sight of the guards.

_'Fuck. My. Life,'_ Mina thought. _'I'm screwed. I'm SO screwed.'_

No, scratch that; she was more than screwed. She was just plain old fucked.

"Enki sir!" The main guard called to him.

_'Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck,'_ Mina swore in her head. Enki was deader than dead at this point and once the guards figured that out she was as good as dead as well. Taking a breath and schooling her expression into one of tranquility, Mina took control of this situation.

"He's dead," She deadpanned as she dropped the gun onto the desk; it hit the wood with a clatter. "Wasn't me though. He was dead before I got here."

The guards' posture stiffened and Mina saw many of them put more pressure on the trigger of their guns. Adrenaline kicking in and making her mind go into overtime, she hit the floor the moment the leader of the guards opened his mouth to scream, "Fire!" Gunshots rang out in the room as they attempted to gun her down. The sound of glass shattering and gunshots were the only things Mina heard as her heart and mind raced a mile a minute.

_'I should've run...'_ She thought in a moment of clarity.

Instead of moping about what she should've done, Mina knew that she didn't have the time for regrets, she looked around at what her possible escape routes were. Suddenly, it hit her. No, it wasn't a bullet or a large shard of glass, but rather the realization that she was in front of windows. Smirking to herself, she knew that she'd get out of here alive. As the rain of bullets tapered off, she would have to get the timing absolutely perfect in order to get out without a bullet wound. Quickly looking around, she saw that the large paneled windows had been shot out thanks to the guards' _fabulous_ aiming skills. Getting to her feet, Mina bolted for the window that had taken the most damage. Glancing behind her once, she saw the guards taking aim once more but by then it was too late for them. Flinging herself out the window, Mina felt gravity take over as her stomach dropped with the sensation of free-falling. Her bronze eyes watched the ground come up to meet her.

-:-

It had been three weeks since the end of Mina's supposed contract with Alderman and Law was getting somewhat impatient. Although he knew that this was the Grand Line and the chances of both of them meeting in the same place again were slim at best thanks to the fickleness of Log Poses and electromagnetic frequencies that said compasses lock on to. Still, one would think that the meaning of "I'll catch up" would mean that she'd catch up soon. Shoving those thoughts away, Law relaxed in the atmosphere of the bar once again; land was always a welcome sight to the doctor as it meant he was one step closer to One Piece and being the King. The bar was slightly crowded which gave him and his men ample cover as they drank to their hearts' content in the corner they had claimed for themselves. Since their seats were close to the doors, the pirates had an excellent view of those coming and going as they pleased, so it proved to be of use in case any bounty hunters or rival pirates walked through the door. But, so far it was just vagabonds and locals; nothing to worry about.

Seeing that there were no rivals around, some of the Heart Pirates began talking and flirting with the women in the bar so the crew was enjoying their stay in the dimly lit tavern. Law stayed on the sidelines for the most part, not finding any women there worth his time. Besides he was there to relax and he could get a girl anytime he wanted; a shark never stirred when in the presence of mere guppies.

"Miss, I'll have another round," He told the passing woman thinking it was a waitress.

However, Law was incorrect when he thought it was a waitress. Either the alcohol must be pretty strong or the lighting was worse than he thought, but when she stopped to stare at him her identity hit him like a brick on the head.

"Law?" A genuinely surprised voice asked.

It was Mina, but she looked a little worse for wear upon closer inspection. Dark circles shadowed her eyes and she looked smaller than he remembered. It was another moment before he realized that she had dropped a bit of weight, which probably wasn't a good thing considering she had already looked to be underweight when they first met.

"Did you just think I was a waitress?" She asked the man with a quirked eyebrow. She certainly didn't look like a waitress in her torn jeans and black tank top.

He just smirked at her. He wasn't going to answer that question.

"Won't you join me?" Law asked in return; rather pleased about the latest turn of events.

Rolling her eyes at his tone and his smirk, Mina made herself comfortable in the seat opposite of the man. It was a simple booth made for four, but Law had been sitting there alone as his crew gallivanted around the bar flirting with women or just relaxed at the bar drinking.

"So what have you been up to Miss Mina?" Law was interested in what had kept her.

Apparently though, it was the wrong question to ask as Mina scowled at the thought.

"Trying not to die," She said bluntly. "I think I've seen enough guns to last a lifetime."

"And just who is trying to kill you?" The pirate was a bit curious as to what happened.

Mina sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I believe the question is, 'Who isn't trying to kill me' because it seems like everyone and their mother wants me dead for some reason or another," Mina admitted.

When Law didn't say anything else, the brunette knew that she just couldn't dodge the question. She'd have to tell him...

"Fine," She grumbled. "It's a long story but I'll give you the short version. Alderman sent me to pick up some more paperwork from his buddy Enki. Enki pretty much helped Alderman become the black market tycoon he now is and somehow I got framed for Enki's murder therefore pissing off every black market dealer this side of the Grand Line. Oh, and I'm broke thanks to me having to bribe some merchants in order to avoid getting killed by a bunch of armed goons. Some severance package eh?"

Law almost found the whole thing funny. Maybe it was because someone would have to have some a lot of bad luck in order for that to happen.

"You have extremely bad luck don't you?" Law chuckled.

"I'm glad you find it funny," Mina's words were dripping in sarcasm. "And it's not so much as bad luck as is the fact that I attract complete and total bastards."

"Name calling Miss Mina?" Law's smirk grew wider.

Mina didn't answer that one; instead she returned his smirk with her own. However, the smirk soon vanished as a complete and utter look of 'Oh crap' as she saw who walked through the bar doors. Law followed the woman's line of sight to a man in a trench coat with a hunting rifle slung across his back and sunglasses on his face. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the bar and thanks to that, one look at the man sent some people running.

"Friend of yours?" Law asked Mina.

The brunette swallowed thickly.

"Uh, you could say that. That's Sirus. Alderman's head of security and former bounty hunter," Mina explained quietly. "He's been tracking me for the past three weeks."

"Alderman set you up," It was more of a statement than a question on Law's part.

Her expression told it all. He was right; Alderman set Mina up.

"Actually he set me up twice," Mina stated. "Caito was supposed to kill me but since I didn't cooperate he didn't know it was me. Also, Caito was an idiot but you probably figured that out the moment he opened his mouth."

Law chuckled. Ah, Caito... What a moron.

"I went back to Inari Island at first to give Caito a shakedown," Mina said. "That's how I learnt about the first time and how I put two and two together. Then when I noticed it was Sirus chasing me, I knew for sure Alderman set me up."

Mina watched the man with the hunting rifle out of the corner of her eye. Maybe he won't notice her... It was then that Sirus looked directly at Mina and Law and began his approach.

_'Dammit!'_ Mina yelped in her head as she desperately looked for a way out.

"Relax Miss Mina," Law's smooth voice made Mina give him a frantic look.

"Relax!" She hissed lowly at him. "How can I relax when there's a man with a hunting rifle hellbent on killing me walking this way!"

Law merely sent her a bemused look. She was way too tense in this situation. Maybe she didn't recall the deal they made six weeks ago, but it still stood. Sirus better turn around and walk away if he wanted to keep his head. Thanks to Sirus' idiocy and not knowing who was sitting across from her, the Heart Pirates were watching closely thanks to the fact that the am unknown man in a tench coat was approaching their captain. And when the man reached for his gun, many of the pirates abandoned what they were doing.

As Sirus stood next to Mina, who was studying the wood tabletop with some fervor at this point, his hand rested on the rifle slung on his back. Law just watched Sirus for the time being, however he was prepared to grab his nodachi that was leaning up against the wall.

"Mina..." Sirus spoke; his voice gruff. "You know why I'm here. Though I'm surprised you eluded Enki's men in the end."

Mina stopped staring at the tabletop as she looked up at the man. Her head tilted off at an angle as she gave a cruel smile.

"That's your problem then," She said eerily calm. "You should know that jumping out of a three story window won't kill me thanks to my powers. Alderman should have paid more attention to my skill set."

Sirus scowled at her attitude and his hand tightened on the rifle.

"And what would that be?" He asked tightly.

Mina gave a low chuckle as she narrowed her eyes at the man.

"Survival," She said. "No matter what this world throws at me, I survive it."

"Survive this," With that Sirus pointed the gun at her head.

The sound of metal was heard and a glinting blade was leveled at Sirus' throat. Mina looked at Law, a bit shocked that he'd do that. But when she saw the look on his face, she realized just how screwed Sirus was. Law wasn't angry, no he was more annoyed than anything. Probably because some asshole comes waltzing in like he owns the place and then interrupted, not to mention threatened, someone he was having a conversation with. No, Law didn't like that one bit.

"It's considered rude to interrupt someone's conversation Mister Sirus," Law said as he kept his blade level at the pale skin of Sirus' neck. "Now, is there something you need from my new subordinate?"

If Mina wasn't surprised before, she sure as Hell was stunned now. Her jaw dropped at that mention and something in the back of her mind reminded her of the deal they had made. Sirus however, was wary of the man holding the blade and tried to keep his shock to himself.

"Y-You're serious?" Sirus said. "You should know that every black market dealer affiliated with Alderman and Enki will want her dead once they realize what she did."

"We're pirates," Law shot back coolly. "We're used to it. And besides, we don't always pay for our supplies. Now, Miss Mina how exactly did you survive jumping out of a three story window?"

Mina took a moment to answer as her mind was currently on overload.

"I'm a Devil Fruit user," She said with her mind on autopilot. "I ate the Tori Tori no Mi. Model: Harpy Eagle. Jumping out of windows is child's play to me thanks to my ability to fly."

Now, Devil Fruit users themselves were a dime a dozen on a place like the Grand Line. Such abilities were commonplace when it came to high ranking pirates and Marines, but flight itself was a more rare ability granted by such fruits. Mina traded the underwater world for the world above the treetops and one that could almost touch the sky itself. Of course her powers were an accident so it was that she just got lucky; one of the rare moments she was really.

"Don't make such a fuss over that ability," Sirus snapped. "Compared to the other powers granted by those cursed fruits, flight is one of the more useless abilities."

Mina's eyes narrowed as her anger slowly built to a boiling point. Sure she can take insults about her personality or how she has bad luck rather well, but badmouth her capabilities and you're as good as dead.

"Shut your mouth old man," Mina said as a deadly glint appeared in her eyes. "I can tear out your throat with one movement of my claws. You've seen me do it before. What makes you think that I can't do it to you?"

"Because you'll be dead before you get the chance!" Sirus' hand tightened around the trigger.

But before anything happened, before any gunshot rang out and spattered blood on the walls and floor, blood ran from Sirus' throat and stained the floor where he stood. With a simple flick of the wrist, Law had cut the man's throat. Sirus' hands loosened and dropped the rifle as he wrapped a hand around his throat. Blood gushed out from between his fingers and he fell to his knees. His head smacked the table and Sirus fell over only to remain still.

With a simple flick of the wrist, Law cleaned the blood off his sword and sheathed it. Mina looked at Sirus' body with a quirked eyebrow and rather curious if he would manage to survive that little encounter with the table and Law's sword. Sirus remained still on the ground and even when she nudged the man's shoulder with her sandaled foot, he didn't move.

"Well, he's dead," Mina said bluntly. "Thanks for that one, though I wish you would've given me the chance to tear out his throat."

It was at this time that the Heart Pirates decided to see what all the fuss was about and came over to check on their Captain. Paying no attention whatsoever to the body on the floor, they just simply ignored it.

"What was that all about?" The ginger, Shachi if Mina remembered correctly, asked.

"He was annoying," Law simply said. "Also he interrupted our conversation."

His crew found that to be the most ordinary answer there was. As the men wearing boiler suits nodded, Mina vaguely wondered if everyone on Law's crew was just as crazy as he seemed to be. Shoving those thoughts away, the brunette wondered if they should move away from the body.

It seemed that Law read her mind when he stood up, leaning his nodachi against his shoulder and told his crew to vacate this bar in favor for a new one. Some men pouted because they had managed to woo some hapless women in this bar but once they realized that there was no other option, they went along.

"Coming Miss Mina?" Law threw the question out there.

"Did you really mean what you said to Sirus?" Mina asked suddenly.

Law chuckled.

"Of course," He said. "Interrupting people in the middle of a conversation is impolite, wouldn't you agree?"

Mina chuckled lightly in amusement before standing up herself. Stepping over Sirus she joined Law and the other Heart Pirates in walking out the door after someone paid the tab.

"Why is she following us Captain?" Bepo asked.

"Because Miss Mina has decided to join the crew," Law said.

"You know what that means right guys!" Shachi grinned widely.

Mina sighed as the men around her suddenly yelled out the word, "PARTY!" at the top of their lungs. Oh boy, this was going to be fun.

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Review! Even if you just wanna say "Hi." Can I just say that this chapter was insanely fun to write? Haha! Yes, we're one Arc down with a long way to go. Next time Mina settles in. Just how well will that work out? Stay tuned! Catch ya' later.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sooo... What are the chances of you guys not killing me? Yes, I LIVE! Sorry about the late, late, late update this time around it's just that well, no one ever said life was gonna be easy. After losing a family member around the time of my last update in August, I just didn't feel like writing. Then I started college two weeks after the funeral. I've been a bit busy... Anyway: I do NOT own One Piece. Only Mina.  
**

Chapter 8: Another Beginning

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." -Leonardo da Vinci

* * *

The sun was shining brightly the next day as a young woman with a suitcase strapped to her back stood in front of a glaring yellow submarine. Mina looked at the sub with some mild hesitation on her part. Her new crew mates had partied it up at the bar last night so she was sure more than a few of them were hung over from that, including her. Mina had a rather low alcohol tolerance since she was never a drinker. No, a little incident when she was sixteen handled that for her. Ever wonder why no one ever sees a drunk bird? Well, after nearly flying headfirst into several dozen trees really put that in perspective for her and she made a very solemn vow over the toilet the next morning to never drink and fly; or drink in general for that matter. It was just not a good idea and Mina learnt that the hard way. The only reason she drank last night was because someone managed to be sneaky about handing her drinks. When she felt a bit buzzed after a drink, and a rather large one at that, let's just say she was not amused. Luckily for them, she couldn't tell the crew apart after that. They really needed some other distinguishing feature other than the hats in her opinion; however she did spot Bepo in the corner and sat with him the rest of the night. The bear didn't say a word all night, and for that Mina was grateful.

Now nursing a minor headache, the yellow glare of the submarine hurt her head. Mina wasn't looking forward to be on a rocking ship and nursing a hangover. Giving a small groan, she averted her eyes. A shudder suddenly traveling up her spine, Mina whirled around and blindly punched whoever was standing behind her. Again, a tattooed hand easily caught her fist and Mina scowled up at the man.

"Is this going to become a habit Miss Mina?" Law asked; mildly amused by her actions.

"If you keep coming up behind me, yes," She sighed. She knew that she'd probably never manage to punch this man and that was probably for the best.

Letting go of her fist, Mina relaxed her fighting stance and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Law was a bit curious as to why she kept trying to punch his lights out.

"It's nothing personal really," She said nonchalantly. "If you were the one who got whacked on the head and tied to a chair, you'd be rather paranoid about people coming up behind you too."

She had a point there. Though Law wouldn't just go for a punch; no he'd probably kill someone instead.

"Oi! Captain!" A voice called to Law and made Mina flinch and hold her head, groaning softly.

Barely making a note of Mina's discomfort with loud voices, Law looked to his vessel to find that his navigator was leaning over the rail.

"What is it Cosmo?" Law called back.

"The Log Pose is set. We can go whenever," The baseball capped navigator told his Captain.

"We'll leave in an hour," Law ordered. "Make sure we have all the necessary supplies."

With a curt nod, Cosmo vanished from the rail and back into the submarine. With that said, Law turned back to Mina. She was looking out at the ocean with a blank expression and doing her best to block out loud noises.

"You have an hour to finish any errands you might have," Law said, gaining her attention once more.

"Hmm..." Mina looked up at the sky for the briefest of moments.

It was a nice day for a quick flight. Slipping her suitcase off her shoulders, she shoved it in the hands of the penguin hatted man, who she had learned was so aptly named "Penguin" sometime last night, as he passed by her on his way to the submarine.

"Take care of that for me will ya'?" She said with her mind already in flight mode. "I'll be back."

With that said, she turned away from the rather confused man now holding a suitcase and took several paces towards the town. Suddenly she turned on her heel and sprinted full force for the end of the dock. Reaching the end of it, she jumped; transforming mid-jump, all the men could get a glimpse of were gray feathers before Mina was gone. She had quickly banked upwards to the right and away from the submarine before anyone could get a real look at her transformation.

"What was that?" Penguin asked as he scanned the skies for any signs of the Zoan user.

"That was our first glimpse of a Harpy Eagle," Law said, also looking up at the sky for the vanished woman. He didn't see the form of a bird or even a bird-woman anywhere against the azure sky.

"Harpy Eagle?" Penguin parroted. He then looked down at the heavy leather suitcase in his grasp. Luckily there was a handle on the top so he wasn't dragging it around by the straps. "What do I do with this?"

Law didn't answer. Instead he walked up the gangplank and left Penguin to mull over his options regarding the suitcase.

-:-

Ah, how Mina loved flight. It was a refreshing feeling when she wasn't being bogged down by any unnecessary luggage. While she did travel this way with just her suitcase hanging off her back, it still got rather heavy at times. Especially after flying with it for several hours without a break in between; so, flying without it was the best feeling in the world to her. Feeling the wind going through her feathers and being high above the trees and buildings of the town, she took in the rather bland landscape. Compared to some other locations she had gotten a bird's-eye view of, this little island was flat. There were no mountain ranges, thick forests, or even any ruins to see from high above the island. No, just your average town really. However, the lack of scenery didn't bother her. In fact nothing bothered her while she flew. She was content to just let the wind carry her. As she glided, Mina kept her wings steady as she beat them to maintain altitude and speed. Finding an updraft of warm air, Mina's wings caught it and soared ever higher into the sky. Marveling at the height she had gotten, her mind was free to wander the clouds that were still above her head so Mina mused over the recent changes in her life.

'I wonder what Grandfather would think about me becoming a pirate...' She thought as she gently beat her wings to change direction.

Her life had changed so much over the course of a few days. Which was nothing new to her really, and the change from Black Market courier to Pirate was't much of a stretch in her mind. Mina's résumé was rather extensive despite her only being twenty-one years old. What job hadn't she had at one point or another? Mina just chalked up her job experiences in being a traveler and since settling in one place just wasn't her style for some reason. After a month of staying on an island, she'd get bored of sitting on her hands and then make the arrangements to leave. She'd admit that flying the Grand Line wasn't the best option that anyone would have thanks to the random weather, so she did make the effort in creating contacts that owned their own ships. However, with her current status as Enki's killer still circulating throughout the world, both the overworld and the underworld would have issues with her now, her contacts were very wary of helping her out. This was partly the reason why she accepted Law's offer so quickly, with the other reason being that it just seemed like a good idea to her.

After nearly an hour of making circles in the sky, the Zoan user reluctantly decided it was time to head back to the ship. Banking off to the right, she turned herself around. She had a small mental debate over flying in as her hybrid form or her more intimidating full transformation. However, she decided to stick with her hybrid form for the time being; after all she didn't want to freak her new crew mates out that quickly. Since Mina hardly knew them she didn't know how they'd react to her fully transformed self. A grin forming on her face as the yellow submarine came into view, she saw plenty of people milling about on deck. Angling herself downward and descending rather rapidly, Mina was very happy about having that big of an audience.

-:-

The Heart Pirates had been milling about on deck for the past hour getting the preparations to leave underway. Moving supplies from the deck to storerooms, it was a rather easy task for some, just a tad tedious and a tad tiring. A few men noticed a large shadow speeding over the deck and eclipsing the sun as whatever was casting the shadow flew overhead. Looking up, jaws dropped when what they could only describe as a harpy flying in low and fast. Massive yellow talons stretched out to grasp the cold metal rail and its slate black wings spread wide in order to stop itself. However, the momentum had been a bit too much so it would've gone toppling over the side if not for the strong grip on the rail.

"Whoa. I think I overshot that a little," The pirates recognized the voice of Mina rather quickly.

Her wings shifting to a more comfortable position, they dropped slightly to provide some relief to her shoulders, Mina turned around to face the stunned men. Smirking widely, Mina felt rather recharged after her flight around the island; her minor headache was a distant memory by now.

"I'm guessing no one told you that I'm a Devil Fruit user if those looks on your faces are anything to go by," Mina observed.

It was true, many of them were shocked at the sight of Mina having wings and set of talons that made bear claws look like mere paring knives. Each yellow toe of her talons ended with a sharp black nail that looked rather dangerous to be on the receiving ending of. They looked powerful to say the least. The size of her wings matched the size of her talons. Mina had an impressive wingspan, going close to seven feet in her hybrid form. The undersides of her wings were a striped slate black and a snowy white. There was another quirk about Mina's hybrid form, one that she rather liked to be honest. She had plumage atop her head. A pale gray double crest stood up on her head, adding to her already birdlike appearance.

"I thought it would be better if you told them yourself, Miss Mina," Law's voice floated across the deck.

Bronze eyes went from her new companions to find her Captain leaning against the doorjamb leading below deck.

"Cat's out of the bag now," Mina quipped. "Besides, they'd find out sooner or later."

"So, what exactly are you?" Shachi asked while studying the wings and talons.

"I'm a Harpy Eagle," The Zoan user informed them.

When she received blank looks from the men around her, it then dawned on her that none of these men were ornithologists and probably had no clue as to what a Harpy Eagle was besides now knowing what the talons and wings looked like.

"I'm going to have to elaborate aren't I?" She had tossed the question in Law's direction.

Law simply smirked at the bored look on her face. Mina didn't enjoy having to explain what a Harpy Eagle was. Sadly, the eagles were rare so she often found herself having to explain what she was to any yahoo who so much as asked.

"Harpy Eagles are a type of eagle that live on certain tropical islands around the world," Mina was going to give them the abridged version of what she was. "They are strictly carnivorous animals that are often the top of the food chain where they live. They aren't your average songbird as they boast the largest talons of any other known eagle."

Mina actually had several classifications when it came to her Devil Fruit; not only was she a bird and therefore could fly, but also a Carnivorous Zoan type.

"You know a lot about what animal you can transform into," Shachi said.

"I made it a point to track down someone who could actually identify what type of bird I am," Mina sighed. "After several years of only knowing that I was a bird, I was a bit curious and managed to track down an ornithologist who happily told me the information I just told you."

In truth, Mina only found out that the Devil Fruit she had was a Harpy Eagle until ten years after she ate the fruit. That was a long time to go without knowing what type of bird she was so it was a welcome discovery in her book.

With that said, Mina stepped off the rail of the submarine and onto the deck. Her sandaled foot hitting the wood gently, she had reverted to her human form in the time it took for her to step off the rail. Her bronze eyes scanned the pirates who remained silent. She was looking for Penguin if her recollection of whom she had handed her suitcase off to was indeed correct. The penguin hatted man wasn't too hard to spot.

"So what ended up happening to my luggage?" Mina asked Penguin.

"Uh, I put it in your room," Penguin was a tad frightened of the Zoan user.

"My room?" She looked over at Law with a questioning look.

"I assumed you didn't want to share a room with any of the men," The Captain said smoothly. "But if you'd rather sleep elsewhere, be my guest."

"No, I'll take it," Mina liked privacy anyway. "Just show me the way."

That's another thing the Zoan user would have to get used to; the submarine. Being away from her element, the sky, would be a bit hard on her for a little while. She enjoyed the outdoors and being cooped up in a metal can wouldn't be the best for her or the people around her. However, she'd deal with it. Or maybe make a bargain with Law in regards to the amount of time they spent surfaced, but she had a feeling that he liked being underwater because it was much harder for anything to attack while they were eighty-thousand leagues under the sea. Mina understood the tactical advantage to having a submarine, it just so happened to be outside her comfort zone.

-:-

As Mina followed Penguin to her room, she made mental notes of which direction to turn and when.

'Damn. This is more confusing than I would've thought,' She sighed mentally. There weren't too many distinctive landmarks to go by in the gut of the metal monster.

"You'll get used to the layout soon enough," Penguin said as he expertly navigated the submarine. "Everyone does eventually."

"That's comforting," She said dryly.

While Mina did have a good sense of direction and always knew the relative direction she was facing; large, enclosed spaces were not her friend most of the time. The core of the problem was simply this: she grew up in a one room cottage and roamed the forests surrounding it for fun. She hardly ever spent any extensive time indoors unless she was ill or there were extreme weather conditions that prevented her from being outdoors. If the feeling she had was correct, being on this submarine was going to drive her up the far wall and back.

Oh, joy.

Penguin's abrupt stop almost made her run into his back. Barely stopping in time, Penguin was none the wiser to Mina's almost blunder.

"Here's your room," Penguin motioned towards the heavy metal door in front of them.

Mina looked around quickly for anything to help her remember the location of her room. All she really saw were pipes that looked rather important for the faculty of the sub. Well, that was unfortunate. Grasping the doorknob, she pulled the door open to see what her room looked like.

The door squeaked open and she saw that her room was rather simple. It was a smallish, rectangular gray walled room with an unmade twin bed that her suitcase was sitting on, a desk shoved in the corner next to the bed, and a small dresser.

'It could be worse,' Mina thought to herself. 'This is at least better than my old apartment that Alderman rented out to me.'

Believe it or not, the apartment had been worse than this. At least she wouldn't be subjected to listening to the midnight escapades of her old upstairs neighbors anymore. There had been a point in time where she seriously began to think that the ceiling would collapse. She wouldn't miss that feeling in the slightest. Besides doubting the structural integrity of her old apartment building, there was also the fact that the neighbors were assholes. Mina was sure that not everyone was going to love her the moment they met her, but she highly doubted that anyone on this submarine could top the crotchety old man on the second floor that hated absolutely everything. And no, that isn't an exaggeration; he actually hated everything from obnoxious children to the roof above his head, Mina would have sooner tossed herself off a cliff wearing Kairouseki* chains than listen to the old man gripe. Well, the past was the past and she no longer had any reason to think of her old apartment building.

"Thanks," Mina turned to Penguin who was still standing behind her.

"No problem," He said. "I'll let you get settled in now."

With that, the penguin hatted man left her to her own devices. With the door squeaking shut, Mina sighed deeply as she looked at her room. There was a small porthole above the desk that provided a sense of time for now. Mina decided that standing awkwardly in the middle of the room wasn't the thing to be doing right now. Her eyes slid over to her suitcase on the bed next to a set of white sheets, a pillow, and a blue blanket. Heaving yet another sigh, Mina began to settle into her new home. Opening her suitcase, she was greeted with the sight of one hell of a disorganized mess. Of course being on the run for quite awhile can make anyone slip in the way of organization, it wasn't a good thing because now Mina didn't know what the hell she had in her suitcase anymore. Digging through multiple Eternal Poses, which she could probably sell a few of, torn clothes that needed to be mended, and a tiger pelt she managed to find her journals. She had two journals; one for the information she collected around the Grand Line, which was a heavy brown leather bound book that would make a very nice weapon if she needed to use it as a blunt instrument, and one of her own personal thoughts and memories, a much more thin, black leather bound book. Also taking the tiger pelt out of her suitcase, she draped that over the back of the wooden chair in front of the desk; it would be used mainly for comfort purposes. Setting the two books beside the lamp on the desk, she turned her attention to seeing what was in the deep recesses of her suitcase.

-:-

In the end, Mina had a total of: ten Eternal poses, clothes that needed mending or just flat out replacing, a toothbrush, her sewing kit, a roll of bandages, several pieces of expensive jewelry, her wallet which was dangerously close to being empty, and her bowie knife. Mina was rather displeased to find her favorite blouse not only looking like it was pulled out of a pig's ass, but also missing a button. In the same vein, however, she was pleased to have found her favorite bracelet in the mess; a tiger bone and jade bracelet. Alternating jade and bone beads, the bone beads were pure white and coated in an almost enamel-like substance, making them look smooth except for the tiny carvings on the bones. It had been made from the same tiger that had given her it's pelt, so the jewelry held some sentimental value. Clasping the bracelet around her left wrist, she sat on her newly made bed now at a loss of what to do exactly.

She didn't have to wait for long because the sound of someone knocking on the door reverberated through her room.

"Come in," She gave them the okay. At least they had the decency to knock.

When the door squeaked open, a bright orange jumpsuit and white fur were the primary colors Mina saw. It was Bepo, the talking polar bear. The Zoan user didn't know why Bepo could talk; she just went along with it. Sometimes it was easier to just go with the flow instead of fighting it. Frankly Mina just wasn't curious enough to ask how the polar bear could talk.

"It's lunch time," Bepo said. "Captain told me to come get you."

Had it been more than three hours already? Last time she checked- Oh right, she didn't have a clock in here. She was going to need a clock sooner or later if the submarine was going to be underwater all the time. So it had been roughly three hours since they left the last island. The blaring siren warning everyone that it was diving sort of clued her in that they left. And there was also the fact that it almost knocked her off balance; no wonder her bed was bolted to the floor.

Standing up, Mina went to follow the polar bear down the hallways of the sub. Shutting the door behind her, the twenty-one year old turned to Bepo who was waiting patiently for her so far.

"Since you're new," Bepo began. "You're below me, got it?"

An amused smile broke the bored look that had been plastered to her face for the past several hours.

"Really?" She asked with a bit of humor in her voice. If he was indeed her superior, she wasn't going to argue with the bear. "Alright."

As they walked to the galley, Mina couldn't help but wonder how she ended up with a polar bear as a superior. If this was going to be the start to her stint as a pirate, she couldn't wait to see how well this little adventure turned out.

* * *

*Kairouseki- A.K.A.: Seastone.

Harpy Eagles: Specifically the American Harpy Eagle, it lives in Central and Southern America. It is an apex predator and strictly carnivorous. Females weigh the average of 13-20 pounds (6-9 kg) while males weigh 8.8-11 pounds (4-4.8 kg). Harpy Eagles routinely favor pray weighing more than 15 pounds (7 kg) as they can lift things equal to their own body weight and indeed have the largest talons of any eagle and exceeding the length of Grizzly bear claws with the size of 13 centimeters (5.1 inches). Those talons can exert a force of 530 pounds per square inch. And their standard wingspan is anywhere from 5'9" to 7'4" (176 to 224 cm).

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave a review! Yeah, I'll admit that this chapter was a bit boring. Sorry for not making anything exciting happen too soon, but it's a breather chapter. Next chapter will be much better than this one. I'll admit that I don't have anything typed out for the next chapter, so it'll be a little while before my next update. But I promise one thing: an update before the New Year. Next time, Arc II starts and it'll boy is there a surprise. Catch ya' later. -praeses**


	9. Chapter 9

**And I live! Oh dear lord this took forever to update. I'm _so_ sorry. But you know, life and all it's grand wonders... Anyway, so I sort of felt like I owed you guys an extra, extra long chapter this time around so that's why it's over 6,000 words. Think of this as a double feature. Anyway, disclaimer on: I do not own One Piece. Only the characters you don't recognize.**

Chapter 9: Another Blast from the Past

"Look both ways before entering the insanity." -Terri Guillemets

* * *

Mina had been a Heart Pirate for four days now and she was finding that she wasn't quite fitting in yet. Of course that could've been due to the fact that the pirates were a bit weirded out by a few of her mannerisms; like accidentally bringing a seven inch knife, which she had stuck in her waistband, to lunch and then claiming it was just her hunting knife. Boy was that a surprise to suddenly look over and see her with a seven inch knife in her hands when there hadn't been one there a mere three seconds ago. Normally the pirates would've written it off as just some odd behavior, but after it happened three more times after that they were getting a bit skeptical. Mina still claimed that she forgot about it since carrying a knife wasn't all that uncommon for her and that she never used it to murder anyone. Murder seemed to be a bit specific to some of the pirates.

That was only one incident that made Mina seem like she belonged in an insane asylum. The other incident had to do with a poker game. Let's just say that it didn't end all that well for her new comrades. It wasn't that she flipped out and injured anyone, it was more that she practically robbed them of what money they had on them. They figured out that she was one hell of a poker player by the end of the night. Though she did need the money; some of her clothes had really seen better days and she outright refused to wear a boiler suit. She had given Shachi a look that basically told him that she thought he was insane for even suggesting that she wear a boiler suit before just giving him a flat "no" to really drive the point home. To be honest, it probably wasn't the most aerodynamic thing either. Although she did keep it in case something went horribly wrong with her wardrobe. Like if they visited a Winter Island; Mina had nothing to wear if they ever visited a Winter Island. She figured that she's cross that bridge when she came to it. Hopefully the next island wasn't a Winter island.

Speaking of, it would be another three days to the next island. Which was a good thing too considering what Mina had learned two days ago. Apparently the submarine needed some repairs. Someone had gotten the bright idea that a leaky pipe could just be fixed with duct tape; and while that normally works, apparently it didn't work so well when another pipe began to leak. They had run out of materials to fix the pipes, so now the mechanics were just trying to keep them from leaking too much. This did nothing to help Mina's anxiety. Not only was she a Devil Fruit user and the idea of being underwater still unnerved her, her mild case of claustrophobia managed to kick in. It wasn't so bad that she was sitting in the corner shaking and plotting a murderous rampage. Yet. Though such an event was bound to happen eventually.

Instead of plotting, however, her mind kept running through all the things that could possibly go wrong; and it wouldn't shut up. It was the proverbial hamster wheel where her brain kept a flurry of thoughts always bouncing around in her head. Mina was heavily annoyed by her mind's inability to shut the hell up. Not even concentrating on her journal could keep her mind off of a watery death for long. With everything going on in her head, needless to say, she was a bit cranky. Well, crankier than normal.

Sighing deeply, Mina rested her head against the desk in her room. She found that just taking it easy for the time being was the best plan since she had been pacing back and forth like a caged animal for the past hour. She was sure that Law wouldn't be happy with her if she dug a rut three feet deep in her bedroom floor. Eyeing the thick brown journal at the edge of her desk, she was halfway tempted to just thumb through it out of boredom. Maybe the legend of Simeon Conrad would calm her down some. However, to fully enjoy the legend, she'd need something to drink. Maybe some tea and a good read would help her calm down. Though the sun would be the only thing missing from her plan.

As Mina stood up from her desk and grabbed the thick book, she took little notice of her bed being in a complete state of disarray. The blankets and sheets were twisted into a sort of mess and it really only seemed to look like something had started nesting in the bed instead of sleeping in it. Completely ignoring the irony of what her bed seemed to look like, Mina left her room without so much a second thought. Luckily she had memorized the way to the galley and a few other places so trekking through the giant metal monster wasn't so much a chore any longer. It still lacked any sort of distinguishing features for her to use as "landmarks" but she was making due with how much she had memorized of the immediate area.

Upon entering the galley, she took notice of several men sitting at a table. Well, it was more like they were slumped over with their heads resting on the metal tables. They all looked to be suffering from being a little overheated if their red cheeks and grumbling was anything to go by.

'Must be the boiler suits,' Mina decided after a moment of observation.

Shrugging she went to the kitchen to ask for some tea. Pushing the door open, she saw that even the cook, Chase, was also suffering a bit. Mopping his forehead with a towel, the cook turned to the bewildered Zoan user at the door.

"Hey, there Missy," Chase greeted in his thick drawl. "Can I get ya' something?"

Mina blinked slowly.

"A cup of tea," She said. "But am I missing something here? Everyone looks a bit overheated."

Chase was stunned that she hadn't noticed the drastic rise in temperature. They were going through an underwater volcanic ridge for Roger's sake! It was boiling in the submarine.

"We're going through a hotspot," Someone, she couldn't quite place the voice, called from the galley. "It's like 95 degrees in here!"

Mina just looked a bit amused. She remained completely unaffected by the warmer than normal temperature in the submarine.

"That's it?" She asked rhetorically. "No wonder I didn't notice anything different."

Ah, the joys of having lived on what was basically a sub-tropical Summer island for the majority of her childhood. Mina didn't even so much as bat an eye at temperatures above 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It was often times hotter than that by noon during the middle of the Summer. She would admit that the humidity would just make things plain uncomfortable, but the dry heat was much more tolerable than anything else in her book.

"A lot of us are from North Blue," Shachi informed his new crew mate. "We don't have much heat tolerance."

Oh right, they aren't Grand Line natives like she is. Although she was sure they'd seen some crazy stuff in order to get past the first third of Paradise, she wasn't sure how they'd handle the more insane things.

"You might want to gain some then," Mina mused. "What kind of climate is the North Blue anyway?"

"Depends on the island," Shachi told her. "Though the Winters are generally long and cold."

It was the complete opposite for Mina's island since summers were long and quite hot where she grew up.

"Sounds lovely," She said flatly as she gave the still suffering pirates a blank look.

Shachi began to say something else, but was ultimately silenced by the cook.

"Ya' still want some tea?" Chase didn't even care that he interrupted Shachi's conversation.

"Yes," Mina still wanted her tea no matter how hot it was.

The men at the table were floored that she would still drink something that warm right now.

While waiting for her beverage, Mina sat at one of the metal tables in the galley and let her journal fall open to the last page she wrote on; she had stuck a pencil in the pages to keep from losing her spot. The last entry she had made was about the map piece she had found on Caito's mansion. It was a crude replica of the map, but hey, it was good to have when she didn't feel like digging up the map piece from her suitcase. It was a shame that she didn't feel like studying it anymore than she already had. Flipping to another page, she was met with a detailed description of how Alderman's business worked. Scowling at the messy writing on the pages she did her best to push the thoughts of that back-stabbing bastard aside.

'If I ever get my hands on him,' Mina let the threat hang inside her head as she clenched her fists.

Glaring at the page, her eyes were drawn to a few little lines towards the bottom of the page. Mina's rage was all but forgotten as a plan began to form in her head as she read those words. The galley seemed to be a distant place to her as she mulled over her decision. Flipping the pencil over her fingers, she had enough presence of mind to thank Chase when he set the mug of tea down on the table. The more she thought about things, the more her sensible side tried to pry her away from her train of thought. Though her sensible side was wasting it's time. It was like attempting to negotiate with a charging rhinoceros; it wasn't stopping for anyone or anything short of a tree. A smug smile began pulling at her lips, and with that, a decision was made. Reaching for the white mug of tea, Mina had decided that it was time to bring down an empire.

-:-

For the most part, it was a quiet night on the pirate submarine. It was also the middle of the night, so there would need to be a damn good reason for anyone waking up at this hour and Mina was about to find that reason. The blankets were twisted around the Zoan users body as she snored softly. It was then that her sleep was so rudely interrupted by an alarm bell going off. The noise invading her dreams, Mina yelped as she woke and tried to sit up. However, with the blankets so tightly twisted around her body, she only succeeded in sending herself off the bed and to the floor. Letting out an annoyed growl, Mina scowled at the ceiling above her with half-lidded eyes.

"I'm going to kill him," She said to the darkness around her as the warning klaxon continued to wail. The "him" of course being Law. Only he would order the submarine to ascend to sea level in the dead of night.

Unravelling herself from the cocoon of blankets she had created, Mina glanced at the clock she had dug out of a storeroom. It was indeed three in the morning and Mina was none too happy with that revelation. She normally got up at 4:30 in the morning so being shorted an hour and a half of sleep was none too pleasing prospect to her. Now Mina was faced with a dilemma. Go back to sleep, or head topside for some much needed fresh air. Well, maybe "dilemma" was too much of a strong word, 'cause the answer was as plain as day for Mina; she'd be going topside. Of course, she'd need to put a pair of pants on first since her usual sleeping attire was her underwear and a t-shirt. Best not to parade around half-dressed in a submarine full of men.

Having gotten ready for the day, Mina wandered the dim hallways of the submarine. Finding her way topside was a bit more difficult than she recalled; but then again, the first time was just dumb luck on her part. Of course the metal monster wasn't making it easy for her either. Stopping at an intersection, the confused woman looked between the two directions she was faced with: straight or right.

"This morning keeps getting better and better..." She quietly mused to herself.

It was then that the sound of a conversation floated over to her ears. Well, if people were up she could always ask how to get to the deck. Listening closely, she could barely make out the conversation. Perhaps "argument" would be a better word... The overall tone and words used were none too kind. Hoping she wasn't walking towards someone being reprimanded, Mina made a right and followed the voices. Her footsteps were, for the most part, silent. Only the soft padding of her bare feet really echoed on the wood floor. As she drew near, the voices became even clearer.

"It's 3:30 in the fucking morning, Sarge!" A male voice, who was obviously not any happier about being up at this hour than Mina was, whined.

"Orders are orders," The bucket-hatted man said evenly. "We're on watch until breakfast."

"Come on, we've been up since dawn two days ago," The other one continued to gripe about the orders. "Is two and a half hours of sleep too much to ask?"

"Shachi, we've been over this before..." Sarge sighed.

Mina was highly amused by her current situation. She was literally standing in front of them and they hadn't even noticed her yet; she was debating whether or not to scare them by interrupting their quarrel. And she would.

"Having a debate at three in the morning I see," Mina said with just a hint of humor in her voice.

The two men nearly jumped out of their skins at her sudden interjection. Shachi yelping audibly, he snapped his head in her direction while Sarge visibly jumped before trying to pretend that it didn't happen.

"Holy-! You- How did you-?" Shachi was apparently too sleep-deprived to form a coherent question if his sputtering was anything to go by.

"I walked," Mina answered the implied question. "Not my fault you took a few minutes to notice me standing here."

"Why are you even up at this hour?" Sarge was much more put-together with his thoughts and obviously a bit more aware if that suspicious tone in his voice was anything to go by.

Mina looked to the large man. Sarge, or rather Sergei, was a rather large man. While shorter than their Captain, there was no doubt about Sarge being bigger than Law. Built like a bear and with a temperament to match, Sarge was the only mechanic in charge of the submarine's engine. The engine usually needed very little maintenance so there was only one man in charge of it. And that was because he normally couldn't stand working together on something like an engine. Apparently it offered too many creative differences in the work process or something... Either that or Sarge really was an anti-social bastard. There was one other thing Mina knew about the man, and it's that he's a horrible poker player.

"Insomnia," Mina said curtly. "Besides, I thought I'd get some fresh air."

With a nod of her head, Mina motioned towards the top of the staircase the two men were currently standing in front of. She had found the way to the deck and she was rather happy about that. It was then that Shachi got a bright idea. Grinning ear-to-ear, the ginger proceeded to get out of watch duty.

"You're a newbie," Shachi stated the obvious.

"I know that," Mina deadpanned, her bronze eyes conveying the amount of boredom with this situation. She knew where it was headed. "And before you make an ass of yourself, I suggest going to bed."

With that, Mina walked past two rather stunned men and headed up the stairs.

"Also keep in mind that the only reason I'm doing this is because I planned to be out here until breakfast anyway," The brunette didn't even spare them so much as a backwards glance.

She reached the top of the stairs and then vanished onto the deck.

"Well..." Shachi began as he looked up at the bucket hatted mechanic. "I'm going to bed. Later."

And just like that, Shachi was gone. Sarge stared at the place where the ginger had been mere moments ago. The man then decided to follow Mina onto the deck. Sarge was a bit suspicious of Mina due to her former profession. Sarge was a Grand Line native like her and the things he heard about Alderman and his lackeys were none too pleasant. While Mina didn't hide her hatred for her former employer, Sarge still found her a bit suspicious so he didn't like the sound of her being the only one on watch for this morning. Lurking in the door to the deck, the bucket hatted man scanned the area for her. Mina was standing on the railing with her back to him. The submarine was anchored for the night, so she wasn't in danger of losing her balance but she was in her hybrid form anyway. Her large talons made the railing look like a mere toothpick in her grasp. Wings spread wide, she seemed to be inspecting them.

"And here I thought I'd be alone," Mina said when she heard Sarge's heavy boots hitting the deck.

"Like I'd let one of Alderman's employees be alone on watch," Sarge said gruffly. He wasn't hiding his feelings at all.

"So you're the one who's been watching me for the past few days," She said nonchalantly. "I was beginning to wonder who it was."

The large man snorted loudly.

"You better not do anything stupid while you're with us," Sarge decided to give her fair warning. "Otherwise, after the Captain's done with you, you'll have to answer to me."

He couldn't see it, but Mina's lips twitched up into a smile. Giving a wry smile to the ocean, she chuckled lightly.

"I'll keep that in mind," The Zoan user said coolly. "I'm not one for betrayal though, so you'll be sorely disappointed if you keep your hopes up."

"That better be the case woman," Sarge stated before walking away.

-:-

Today was the day they were to arrive at the next island. It was a sunny day and the gulls were the first sign that they were close to land. That and they could see the island off in the distance. It was a large island with a port city and Mina couldn't wait to get be on land again. Part of her just wanted to finish the last ten minutes of the journey there by flying to the island, but she ultimately figured that it would be a bit unfair to her equally antsy crew mates.

Standing on the deck, Mina gazed at the flying gulls instead of helping with any preparations for landing. Not that they'd need her help for anything anyways. The rest of the Heart Pirates seemed to be doing fine without her. They way she saw it was that if they needed her help, they'd ask. Tearing her eyes away from the gulls, she looked in front of her only to see Sarge. It had been a few days since their chat during the night watch, and she could still feel his eyes on her every now and again. She didn't feel threatened in the slightest by the larger man, but she was still as wary of him as he was of her.

"Stop standing around and help," He ordered and then walked away.

Blinking at him, she sighed before pushing off the wall she had been leaning against. Time to at least help with something.

Mina ended up helping Shachi with the wind direction. Which was something Mina was rather adept at doing. Watching the birds and even turning into her hybrid form, she successfully gave Shachi the necessary information he needed. Now they were docked at the port. The town itself was, well, a bit unsettling. It wasn't a boisterous town like Lostrowan, but rather the people who walked the streets seemed like zombies. The atmosphere was heavy and almost repressive. The brick streets of the town were crowded, but it seemed like the townspeople were going through the motions of their lives rather than living. Fisherman wrangled their catch without much chatter or laughter, children seemed to be putting up a cheery façade, and the even the merchants and travelers who came into town seemed nervous about something.

Eyeing the town suspiciously, Mina took in the local architecture. It was a simple town. Wooden buildings lined the streets, brick pathways wove between the shops and homes, and the greenery seemed to be plentiful. Trees and flowers were abound in such a place. Mina's eyes were then drawn to the building overlooking the town. It was a castle surrounded by dense forests. The stone building stood out against the line of green pine trees with a sort of dignity. Mina couldn't see much from the distance she was at, but the sight of a black flag flying atop the castle was enough to make her even more wary of the island than she'd been at the start. She hoped the others had noticed it by now, but they probably wouldn't recognize the flag even if they had due to the distance. It was a pirate flag. The skull and crossbones were all too apparent against the blue sky.

"Oi," An unfamiliar voice invaded her ears.

"Eh? What do you want?" Shachi's voice floated up to the deck.

Most of the men had already jumped off the railing as soon as Law gave the order to disembark, but Mina stayed behind to study her surroundings. The brunette decided that now was just as good as any other time to join them. She didn't like this island even though it was a beautiful place to fly around in her opinion. Her sandals hit the wooden pier with a slap, but the men in front of her didn't even pay attention to her. Mina scrutinized the newcomers. There were two of them, both males with one being much older than the other if she had to guess. The first of the duo was a man of average height and build. He wore a black t-shirt with a Jolly Roger displayed prominently on the front. The sneering skull wore a crown studded with rubies and other precious gems. The insignia seemed familiar to her, but she continued to study the man. His cut off black jeans hit below his shins, the edges frayed towards the end and strings hung from the tattered edges. He wore simple black tennis shoes to match his black ensemble. He was currently smirking widely at the sight of the Heart Pirates with his bright orange hair hanging in his face; it still didn't stop his blue eyes from sparkling with a sense of superiority towards them. That expression made Mina want to kick this man's ass into the ocean without a second thought. The only thing that was stopping her was the rapier at the man's left hip. The gold caged handle was that much of a given. The scabbard was, again, black with gold highlights that reminded Mina of the waves.

The second man was much shorter than the first. His eyes were firmly on the ground and covered by a black mop of hair, so Mina couldn't see his facial features. He was younger than the first man and he in comparison to the man next to him, he was dressed in white. A white t-shirt with the same Jolly Roger, white pants that instead of being frayed, were cleanly pressed and hit just above his white tennis shoes. He had no weapons to speak of, but something about the kid made her wary.

"Oh, nothing much," The man with the rapier said. "I just wanted to let you know the rules around here."

"Rules?" Shachi repeated. It was a bit confusing to be lectured on rules by someone who's obviously a pirate.

"Yep," The orange haired man said as he grinned even widely. "There's a toll to dock here ya' know. 500,000 beli per day."

The Heats weren't please to hear that at all.

"What!" Penguin exclaimed.

Even Mina was astonished at that price. Most likely the Log set in quite a few days, so they had quite the little scam going here.

"Oi, what's going on here?" The voice of their captain cut through the commotion.

Everyone but the kid looked up to see Law standing by the rail above them.

"Oh, you must be the leader then," The scammer remarked. "It's 500,000 beli per day in order to dock here."

Law's eyes narrowed at that news.

"And how long does the Log take to set?" The Heart Captain said coldly.

"Oh... About five days," Orangie said.

"What?!" The men around Mina screamed. "That's 2,500,000 beli!"

Ouch. That was a steep price. Mina could only imagine how pissed Law was... The nodachi toting Captain jumped off the deck to land lithely on the pier next to his men.

"And if we refuse?" Law figured he'd ask.

Orangie merely chuckled.

"Then I'd have to tell my Boss," He said as he narrowed his blue eyes. "And the Boss doesn't take kindly to being shorted his money. If ya' knew what was good for you, you'd cough up the dough."

"What if we don't have the money?" Penguin asked out of curiosity.

Orangie looked at the penguin hatted man.

"Then we'll come up with some other sort of payment," He said cooly.

Mina blinked at the orange haired man. Was he staring at her? Yep, he was. Oh, Mina was not amused.

"We refuse," Law stated flatly gaining the attention of Orangie once again.

Orangie blinked at the declaration before laughing.

"Alright then, suit yourself," Orangie sighed. "Come along now, Flynn. We need to see the Boss."

The kid didn't even look up as he followed Orangie.

As soon as the other pirates were out of earshot, the Heart pirates let out a collective groan. This couldn't end well.

"This can only end badly..." Sarge muttered. He then noticed Mina looking thoughtful. It was pretty easy to tell when she was thinking about something; she'd stare up at the sky.

"I recognized the Jolly Roger," Mina's eyes went from the sky to Law. "They're called the King Pirates and they're Captain is named Duncan."

"Who are they? More of Alderman's associates?" Sarge asked acidly.

"Do you think I've worked for Alderman for my entire life?" Mina snapped, her bronze eyes narrowing at the large man. "The King Pirates are just some regular pirates who gained notoriety for their crimes, not their association with Alderman."

"Miss Mina, Mister Sergei," Law stopped an argument from breaking out between the two of them.

Mina growled in aggravation softly and Sarge merely looked away from the woman.

"That's all I know about them though," Mina stated. "If you want more information however, I seem to recall an old friend of mine living on this island."

"Eh?" The men were surprised.

Mina broke away from the pirates around her and walked to a fisherman. Placing a hand on his shoulder, the middle aged man even flinched.

"This is Crissor island, right?" She asked.

"Y-Yes," The fisherman stuttered.

Mina smiled in triumph. Oh things were working out well right now.

"Which way to the Charming Angel's bar then?"

-:-

Despite some skepticism on Law's part, Mina insisted that the bartender was an old friend of hers and that he'd know a lot of what was going on with the pirates on the island. And her persistence had indeed paid off; she was now leading him and a group of other Heart Pirates to the Charming Angel's bar. The streets bustled with activity of all sorts, but there was almost a sense of fear palpable in the air. The townspeople were on edge, that much was obvious.

"Are you sure the guy won't try to kill you?" Sarge asked the Zoan user.

Mina scoffed.

"Arthur has no connection to Alderman," She told them flatly. "He and I once belonged to a crew of treasure hunters."

"Treasure hunter to underworld dog," Law was curious about Mina's past. "What happened there?"

"Our Captain died and we couldn't bring ourselves to continue without him," Mina kept her voice calm and unwavering. "We all went our separate ways after he passed."

Silence settled over the pirates for a moment. They couldn't imagine what they'd do without Law. Even the Captain himself was a bit uncomfortable now.

"Oh," Mina's voice snapped them out of their slightly depressing thoughts. "Fair warning right here, Arthur is a bit... Eccentric."

"Eccentric?" Shachi was more than a bit skeptical now. "How so?"

"You'll see..." Mina sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. She wasn't looking forward to this. At all.

Coming to a stop outside of the bar, Mina took a deep breath before turning the knob. Normally one would expect to see men of all various ages and professions inside, but this bar was eerily empty of all people but the bartender. A young woman with platinum blonde hair tied back in a ponytail stood behind the bar polishing a glass. Her blue eyes went to the door upon hearing the hinges creak open and with a radiant smile, she greeted them.

"Hello there," She greeted airily. "Welcome to the Charming Angel."

Mina gave pause for a moment. She wasn't expecting this. Oh well, Arthur was probably pulling his usual stunts again. With nary another thought, Mina approached the bar. The interior of the bar was spacious with plenty of tables out but it was a bit dark as most bars are; dark wood floors and paneled walls were par for the course at this point. The woman behind the bar wasn't the least bit fazed by the pirates that came in shortly after Mina did. Of course with such a pretty woman behind the bar, the pirates felt a bit more at ease and they joined Mina at the bar.

"I'm looking for Arthur," Mina cut right to the chase as she sat down.

"Oh, such a shame," The woman sighed. "He passed away three months ago. I'm his little sister, Annie. You must've been a good friend of his if you knew where to find him though. What's your name? He told me all about his friends, so I might be able to help you."

Mina blinked at the blonde.

"The name's Mina," She gave in to the request. "How did Arthur pass if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's those damn pirate's fault!" Annie accused. Finally setting the glass on the bar. "They murdered him!"

With that tears came to her eyes. It was then that the Heart Pirates offered their... Condolences. While the men were attracted to those big blue eyes set in her heart shaped face and hair the color of cornsilk, Mina took a closer look at Annie. The woman was wearing a floor length blue dress that looked a bit heavy for the pre-summer weather of the island.

"Oh thank you boys," Annie said with a rueful smile. "You're such dolls."

And with that, the flirting began. Annie's blue eyes immediately went to Law and a coy smile made it's way onto her face.

"So who're you handsome?" Annie asked cutely.

Law was used to this sort of attention by now. The rest of the crew grumbled their complaints and backed off for now. There really was no competing with their Captain.

"Law," He introduced himself.

Suddenly Annie's head snapped back to the slightly dumbfounded Mina. The Zoan user hid her confusion well behind a mask of indifference.

"Is he your boyfriend?" She asked.

It took a moment for her brain to process that question. What the hell was this girl up to?

"No," She said flatly.

Annie looked pleased by this answer.

"You're kind of cute yourself, sweetie," Annie then said to the now slightly creeped out brunette. "You wanna a drink? It's on the house."

Well, looks like there was one person who could compete with Law after all. Too bad Mina wanted nothing to do with this situation. The men however, were finding some sort of enjoyment out of this whole deal.

"No thanks," Mina's voice sounded a bit strained.

The bartender pouted at the refusal. However any trace of hurt feelings were soon eased as the blonde turned back to Law.

"How about you, cutie?" Annie cooed.

"It's a bit early to drink, isn't it Miss Annie?" Law really didn't want to start drinking before lunch.

"Ah, phooey," The bartender remarked. "It's never too early to drink darling. So what'll it be?"

Well she was a persistent one that much was blatantly obvious.

"Come on, for me?" Annie turned up the charm level and batted her eyelashes at the men.

The men were about to agree before the rather disturbed Zoan user stepped in.

"Okay, okay," Mina said. "This is a bit too creepy, don't you think so Arthur? Keep this up and longer and you'll traumatize them."

Dead silence hung in the bar. The pirates froze in utter shock. Arthur...?

"Mina!" Annie said in an accusing tone. "Why'd you go and tell them that? I was having so much fun..."

So, looks like Annie was really Arthur after all. This realization made the pirates gape openly. Even Law was stunned silent by this news.

"Too late," Mina glanced at her new crew mates. "You traumatized them already."

"Now way," Arthur now dropped his ruse and let his voice settle back into the normal octave. "I don't traumatize people. They're just too stunned by my beauty."

"You traumatized me!" Mina accused the blonde man. "Hell, you traumatized most of the crew with your antics."

With the two of them bickering, the pirates began to recover some. A few of the men felt... Well to put it bluntly, disturbed. Either by Arthur or the fact that they had been attracted to a male in some damn good disguise.

"Miss Mina," Law stopped the two from bickering any further. "Are you sure this... Man, can help us?"

The brunette looked from the still somewhat angry Arthur back to her Captain.

"Yes," She said flatly. "Once you get past his penchant for traumatizing innocent people, he's somewhat helpful."

"For the last time, I don't traumatize people," Arthur said in exasperation.

"Keep telling yourself that," Mina scoffed. "Doesn't change the fact that you snuck into people's beds at night."

Arthur just laughed.

"That was a joke," He said. "It was all good fun."

Mina shook her head in exasperation.

"So what can I do for you Mina dear," Arthur picked the glass back up. "Unless you came just to visit little old me."

"First off, why are you in drag?" Mina deadpanned. "I know you swing both ways, but seriously, that's a bit much."

The Heart Pirates were wondering that as well.

"Well you see, I might've pissed off the King pirates," He admitted. "So, Arthur had to pull a vanishing act and Annie had to take over the bar. Simple really."

"Why didn't you just tell us you were a guy then?" Shachi asked. "It would've saved a lot of trouble."

Arthur suddenly stopped shining the glass and set it down once again. It was then that Mina noticed the rolled up screen above the bar and the gold rope that attached to the screen. How odd...

"Because..." Arthur began.

Mina's unasked question was soon answered when Arthur pulled the golden rope. A pink, flowery backdrop suddenly eclipse the sight of the glasses and bottles of booze on the back shelf taking the patrons off guard.

"I LOVE PEOPLE!" Arthur screamed at the top of his lungs. His hands went to his cheeks as he gushed. "They way they react to situations, the faces they make when they get embarrassed, and of course those tight little bodies that beg to be loved. I just can't help myself. I just love it~!"

Again, dead silence from those present in the bar. Mina just stared at her still gushing friend. She knew he was crazy, but she hadn't realized that he went even crazier in the past five years. The Heart Pirates were heavily disturbed by this point. A lot of them felt like walking out of the bar by now, and Law was one of those people. It took a lot of self control to remain calm, but he was highly disturbed by this man's actions. That little voice in the back of his mind was telling him to leave.

"So darling," Arthur suddenly invaded Law's personal space. "Want to-"

Luckily his question was never finished. Mina finally decided that enough was enough, and yanked on his ear in order to make him stop his ranting. Arthur had gone a bit too far off the deep end and Mina had to reel him in.

"Just stop," Mina ordered as she retained her grip on the man's ear. "Now, care to tell me everything you know about the King pirates?"

* * *

**Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave a review then! A special thanks goes out to Eliephant for the new cover. It's awesome isn't it? And I have to say, I loved writing out Arthur here. Oh, god, he's so funny. Also if you feel like he crossed a line anywhere, then my job is done. I can't really give you guys an estimated time for the next chapter, but I'll make sure it's not another four months okay. I've got plans. Big ones too. **


	10. Chapter 10

**And I live again. At least it didn't take me four months to write this one, eh? Haha! And I've finally reached chapter 10. Yay! Well, anyway, disclaimer on: I do not own One Piece. Mina and her cohorts however, are indeed mine.**

Chapter 10: Another Tale of Piracy

"Does it involve sneaking and stabbing? Please say yes!" -Cicero, _The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim_

* * *

It hadn't been much of a shock for the orange haired man when those pirates refused to pay. It was a rather common occurrence for the King Pirates to have to deal with those foolish enough to refuse to pay. Of course it never occurred to their captain that not everyone had that amount of money. Duncan was a rich man from the start and if there's one thing that his crew would admit, it's that the epithet of "King" was rather fitting for the man.

The orange haired man as well as his associate, Flynn, had made their way through the woods of the Crissor island. The winding paths and surrounding trees made it a rather difficult area to traverse, but the two made it up to their hideout without much of a problem. The forests on the island were dense and mostly full of conifer trees; the green needly trees were highly abundant around the island. The King Pirates' hideout was an old castle. That was the main draw for the pirate Captain. He loved the idea of living in a castle and this one just so happened to overlook a nice town. The castle itself had been in a slight state of disrepair when they first arrived, but there were some quick renovations courtesy of the townspeople. A twisted arm here and there and the pirates were sitting pretty in their castle and the gray stone walls were as sturdy as ever. The castle was by no means a sprawling estate, but rather a small one which proved to be easy enough to defend if need be. It was comfortable in the sense that there was enough room for the King Pirates to comfortably live without stepping on each other's toes. Of course not everyone was happy with the decision to stay in the castle and quite a few of the men wanted to go back out to sea soon. Duncan, however, had no real plans to leave and had told his crew that if they didn't like his decisions to keep it to themselves otherwise there would be a practical use for the dungeon after all. Needless to say, the crew kept their opinions to themselves after that.

"Hey Scotty," Another King pirate said to the orange haired man when he came to the gates. "I didn't expect you to be back until dinner."

The orange haired man chuckled a bit.

"Well Karl, some rookies decided to take their chances and not pay our toll," Scotty explained. "I think Duncan needs to start looking forward to seeing some heads roll, don't you?"

"Come on Scotty," Karl sighed. "They're probably a bunch of kids. Why don't we let it slide just this once? You know that the toll is rather outrageous."

Scotty's blue eyes narrowed as he swung his arm around Karl's shoulders.

"Hm... If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that you were going against Duncan's orders," Scotty said coolly.

Karl laughed nervously. The blue haired man didn't need any trouble from his Captain. Quite frankly, this was the reason why Scotty was Duncan's right hand man despite that supposedly affable personality.

"Oh come on, I was joking," Karl insisted. "Those brats won't know what hit them once we're through with 'em."

The first mate patted Karl on the back with a wide grin.

"That's the spirit," Scotty was pleased to hear Karl change his tune so quickly. "Now, I can't keep the Captain waiting now can I?"

With a laugh, the first mate vanished into the castle. Karl glanced at Flynn only to freeze in terror. The young man's eyes were fixated on Karl. Those piercing gold eyes were enough to make anyone freeze in utter horror.

"Come on Flynn!" Scotty called to him.

Much to Karl's relief, Flynn followed orders leaving the blue haired male to contemplate his future with the King pirates.

-:-

Meanwhile at the Charming Angel's bar, Mina and Arthur were in the middle of their "happy" reunion with one another. The Heart pirates were still processing the eccentricity of Arthur and more than a few of them considered leaving. This included Law of course. Out of all the people they've met on their journey to One Piece, Arthur was single-handedly one of the weirdest they've met in a long time. However, the weirdest thing had to have been the scene currently in front of them.

Mina still had Arthur by the ear and wasn't showing any signs of letting go anytime soon. Needless to say, the blonde haired man was whining that it hurt every time she pulled on his ear. On top of the rather... _Creative_ death threats she was issuing, it was proving to be too much for the Heart pirates.

"My, my, my! So violent Mina!" Arthur was remarking on her death threat that involved a can opener and a paring knife.

"What can I say? You irritate me to no end sometimes," Mina was about ready to toss the man into the wall by now. "And you still haven't answered me."

"Well maybe if you let go of my ear, then we'd be able to talk more civilly," Arthur was becoming irritated with her.

With a huff, Mina let go. Arthur then went to rub his poor abused ear with his free hand. Why only one hand you ask? Well... To put it lightly, Mina was currently sitting on his back and had his left arm pinned across it. Yes, a rather interesting turn of events but all that really needs to be said is that there was a breakdown in communications. Arthur really just pissed her off to no end sometimes, so she reacted accordingly. She had pulled him over the counter and slammed him on the ground with what some could call "excessive force" because the whole bar shook when Arthur hit the floor. It had been quite the spectacle really.

"Now then," Mina calmed herself down some. "Willing to talk now?"

"Well if you got off my back then yes," Arthur deadpanned. "And maybe if you stopped trying to break my shoulder too. Seriously, I'm not all that flexible."

Rolling her eyes Mina got up off his back and much to her annoyance, the man sprang back up as spry as ever. She swore the man was nearly indestructible sometimes.

"Well then, that was an interesting event," Arthur said as he swept off his dress. "Now where was I? Ah, yes, the King Pirates."

Mina took her seat at the bar once more and ignored the stares coming from her new crew mates. Apparently they hadn't expected her to literally lift the man up off the floor by the collar of his dress and put him in an armbar. Arthur began to right some of the chairs and tables that had been disrupted when Mina practically thrown him on the floor and sat on him in order to make him talk.

"Well, there's not much to say about them. They came to Crissor nearly four months ago," Arthur began.

The Heart Pirates had finally recovered a bit now that things had finally calmed down in the bar. They listened closely to the story Arthur had to tell.

"It was pretty average at first. Well, at least until their Captain, Duncan, wanted to make their base here. Long story short, they had the masons in the town renovate the castle to their needs and I didn't really appreciate it when they dragged people kicking and screaming out of my bar," Arthur gave a heavy sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "My attempts to stop them didn't end well. It sort of ended in me seemingly jumping off a cliff and faking my death. Thus, Annie was created. I've sort of been biding my time, but none of my plans really have a chance of working."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had a rough couple of months," Mina remarked dryly. "So you got your ass kicked. What about their Captain?"

Arthur sent the brunette a look. She didn't have to say it like that... But that was Mina for you. She had the tendency to be very blunt about certain things.

"Duncan... Well, he's a Devil Fruit user. I witnessed that much. All he did was so much put a hand on the mayor and the poor man was screaming something about how his face was melting off. I... Sort of regret looking at his wounds. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick again," Arthur did go a bit pale at the memory.

"What kind of injuries did he have?" Law spoke up for the first time in a long while.

Arthur crossed his arms over his chest in thought.

"Let's see here... How to describe it..." He muttered to himself. "Ah! I know. Ever leave a candle on the stove? Yeah, it was kind of like that except there was a lot more blood and stuff. Also there was fizzing. Lots and lots of fizzing."

Well, that did sound gruesome. There were quite a few grimaces at the description; no one wanted their face melted off. That didn't sound like their idea of fun.

"Yeah, not exactly pleasant," Arthur said flatly. "The poor man died a few days later in Doctor Trent's office."

Law made a mental note to visit the doctor on the island for some more information. Though to him, it sounded like severe acid burns. Although he'd need either photos of the incident or a more professional opinion in order to make a decision, this information was very important.

"Anything else, my dear Mina?" Arthur looked to her.

"I got my information," She remarked. "Anything else, Captain?"

"No," Law was done with this exchange. He just wanted to leave now.

"Excellent," Arthur suddenly said as he clapped his hands together. "Now, Mina dear, care to answer a few of my questions?"

Mina did not like the Cheshire cat grin on his face nor did she like where this was going. Arthur hummed to himself as he went back behind the bar. Vanishing quickly, the man rummaged around under the bar. The gentle clinks and clangs of the bottles and glasses beneath the bar were the only things heard other than his humming. Suddenly, Arthur came back into view with a paper in his hand and his face in Mina's. He was quite furious for some reason with his eyebrows drawn together and a frown settled on face.

"What exactly is this!?" He snarled with rage in his eyes.

Mina looked rather taken aback. Her eyes went to the paper in his hands and her mood did a complete 180. Wincing comically, the brunette sighed.

"Oh come on," She sounded defensive. "I was 17 and on a bit of a wild streak."

"Wild streak!?" Arthur roared. "You call prison break, assault on Marine officers, theft, disturbing the peace, and dine and dash a wild streak!"

"Yes," Mina deadpanned. "I haven't skipped out on a meal bill since then."

Arthur deflated rather quickly after that response. His jaw dropped and he slammed his face on the bar counter, the paper still being held to her face.

"Not the point..." Arthur sighed. "So not the point... What would the Captain say...?"

"He'd laugh," Mina kept a straight face.

The blonde haired man just groaned into the countertop.

"What are you two talking about?" Sarge asked. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the Heart Pirates were rather confused as to what the big deal was.

"Oh, just a bounty poster. For me," Mina said. "Nothing big really. Just some petty crimes from a few years ago."

Mina slid the poster out of Arthur's grasp and handed it to Law. Her crew mates crowded around their Captain to look over his shoulder.

The Heart captain glanced at the poster. He actually wasn't sure it was Mina on the poster though. The photo was of a teenage girl with cropped dark blue hair that barely reached the back of her neck. She was looking over her left shoulder with a very obvious grin on her face obviously directed towards the person taking the shot. The girl was standing there with a Marine officer in her grasp; the much larger, rather unconscious looking man was being held off the ground by his collar. The words in bold read: Wanted Dead or Alive, Cela. And the bounty was a measly sum of 7,000,000 beli.

"It was mainly because I made an ass out of this Marine Commander," Mina remarked as she remembered the events leading up to those charges with an amused smile playing at her lips.

"Are you sure you're not joking?" Shachi voiced the skepticism of the pirates.

"Why would I lie about a bounty that small?" Mina said with a quirked eyebrow. "Arthur probably figured it out because of my tattoo. He was there when I got it, so he'd know better than anyone else."

Tattoo? That prompted another look at the bounty poster. Sure enough, the halter top the girl was wearing in the picture didn't quite cover up the top of a tattoo on her back. The inked symbols were rather hard to make out, but it was there.

"Then why's it have your name as 'Cela'?" Sarge said gruffly. "And your hair is different."

"Alias," Mina answered easily. "You'd think I'd give my real name to a bunch of Marine goons? Especially since I wanted to travel unhindered at the time. And I had dyed my hair for fun. Rule 1, right Arthur?"

The man was still taken aback by Mina's nonchalance about the whole situation. Arthur just grumbled a response that was really only intelligible to the countertop. If his Captain could see him now... He'd probably be getting his ass kicked. Back then, the treasure hunters had elected Arthur as Mina's glorified babysitter. They weren't about to let a 13 year-old girl run rampant wherever she pleased, so the leader of the treasure hunting crew, a hefty middle-aged man by the name of Garrett, assigned Arthur to make sure she never got into too much trouble. Even meeting again as adults, Arthur still felt some responsibility for her actions. Old habits die hard and apparently Mina's reckless attitude was still there despite her having much more life experience than she did when she was 13 or 17.

Mina just looked amused by her friend's current state of mind with a small mischievous smile tugging at her lips. It then grew to an even larger smirk as she patted the man's head.

"Stop moping about an ass kicking that'll never happen," She told him.

With a heavy sigh, Arthur lifted his head off the counter and gave her an mildly annoyed look.

"And what're the chances that you're going to tell me that you somehow managed to get into even more trouble after this?" Arthur just sounded tired.

Mina just let her smirk speak for her. Even without her saying another word Arthur groaned and just put his head down on the counter again.

"I don't want to know, so don't tell me," Arthur said. "It'll just give me a conniption."

The bronze eyed woman just chuckled.

"Fair enough," She muttered.

Also Mina didn't want to get her ass kicked by Arthur. If he found out that she fell in with Alderman... Oh, she was kind of deader than dead at that point. There were a few people Mina never wanted to piss off to the point where they'd want to kill her, and Arthur was a man on that list. He was right below Law currently.

"Thank you for the information, Mister Arthur," Law said as he got up. "But-"

"You aren't thinking of leaving are you?" Arthur perked right up and cut Law off. "I thought you were going to stay here while Mina scouted the fort?"

Dead silence seemed to be rather popular in the bar because it was happening quite a lot. And confusion. Confusion seemed to be as popular as silence nowadays.

"Huh?" Seemed to be the general response of the Heart Pirates.

Arthur just gave them a look that spoke volumes; it was the type of look that just screamed "morons". Mina just shook her head.

"You know, I wasn't exactly volunteering my scouting services," The brunette sighed. This was going to be a pain. She just had that feeling again.

"I'm more interested in why Mister Arthur thought you'd be scouting, Miss Mina," Law wasn't aware that scouting was part of her list of skills.

Arthur snorted before rolling his eyes.

"What do you think we used her for? Her frightfully non-existent social skills?" The blonde haired man said sarcastically. "No, we used the fact that she could fly and blend in to our advantage. No one bothers to look in the trees for Devil Fruit users lurking in them because they don't expect them to be there."

Mina didn't appreciate the jab towards her social skills. She wasn't _that_ bad. Was she?

"My main job with the Hammerhead Treasure Hunters was scouting whenever I wasn't hunting for food stocks," Mina explained as she crossed her arms over her chest. "As long as there's proper cover for me, I'll be able to spy on the King Pirates."

"So there was another reason why Alderman kept you around," Sarge snorted. "Doesn't surprise me at all..."

The most peculiar thing happened just then. Mina's tan skin paled to the point where she looked like she had seen a ghost. Her body went as stiff as a board and she looked absolutely horrified at the mention of Alderman. The woman was utterly speechless as she stole a glance at the blonde man behind the counter; a visible bead of sweat traveled down her brow at the sight. Many pirates followed her line of vision and felt the need to run. Arthur was, for a lack of a better word, pissed. Very pissed. Livid would be the proper word actually. If a glare could kill, Arthur would've killed Mina three times over by now; his shoulder were taught and his mouth was pressed into a hard line.

"Mina," Arthur hissed out her name. "Don't tell me... Did you seriously get involved with that man?"

Mina swallowed thickly.

"I-I can explain..." Mina said tightly before giving a nervous laugh. "I didn't have much of a choice in the matter... Life or death situation?"

Arthur continued to glare at the woman. Her bronze eyes searched for a possible exit rapidly. The door was out of the question, he could just run after her. Though there was the open window over there... Yeah. That would work. Loosening her muscles, Mina gave another nervous laugh before taking a few steps back towards the window.

"Well, look at the time," Mina said as she glanced at her non-existent watch on her right wrist. "I think I better go do that scouting thing now, right Captain? Oh, I'll be back in a few hours so feel free to hang around with Arthur. I'm sure he'll get you something to drink."

Law was too stunned to form a response. Mina was actually afraid of this man to the point where she'd run away from him. She wasn't even trying to hide her fear at this point.

"Don't you even..." Arthur was just about to hop over the bar. "You're not getting away from me, Missy!"

With that, Mina dove straight out the window and Arthur hopped over the bar a bit too late. Running to the window himself, Arthur looked at the sky to see the retreating form of Mina in her hybrid form. He frowned deeply before sighing. That girl... She'd get herself killed one of these days if she kept hanging around with the wrong type of people. He and the rest of the treasure hunters warned her how many times to keep to herself? About three hundred times, but it was fairly obvious that she didn't heed their advice. He often wondered if she even listened to their advice.

"What... Was that about?" Law recovered his voice before the rest.

Arthur scoffed before turning away from the window with a heavy frown on his face.

"I knew she would be trouble the first day we found her," He said as he stalked back over to the bar. "13 year-old girls throwing spears and wearing animal bones for clothes are always trouble. Never forget that."

"Huh?" Penguin summed up the collective thoughts of the pirates rather well.

Arthur sighed once more as he grabbed some liquor from behind the bar. He poured himself a shot of his most expensive whisky. Why was it that she always made him want to have a drink? Oh, right. She caused him a lot of stress when it comes right down to it.

"That's how we found her," Arthur elaborated before downing his drink in a single gulp. Wincing as it went down, the man just shook his head. "On a deserted island actually. When we first walked into the forests of the island, a spear was thrown down from the trees and it nearly put a hole in the navigator's foot. We look up, and there she is."

Arthur smiled fondly at the memories as he poured himself yet another shot.

"We warned her so many times about the type of people she should associate with. Falling in with a guy like Alderman was what we wanted to avoid when I came to her. Now pirates I can see her falling in with pretty quickly, so you guys are fine with me," Arthur gave them his approval before taking his second drink. "Just... Keep in mind that when we found her, she was wearing a tiger skull for a helmet. Try anything funny with her and it might be your skull she's walking around with next."

Arthur couldn't help but smirk at the looks on some of the pirates' faces. A few of them actually looked a bit disturbed by that idea. Which idea it was, Arthur could only imagine.

-:-

Meanwhile, Mina was having a lovely flight. It was so good to feel the wind on her feathers again. Soaring over the island, Mina was high enough in the sky to avoid drawing attention to herself. The bird's eye view allowed her to see where the castle was located. Eyeing the path leading up to the large stone building, she angled herself downwards to begin her descent into the trees. The thicket of conifer trees allowed for plenty of cover during her scouting mission. Maybe this wouldn't be such a huge pain in the ass as she originally thought. She probably just jinxed herself right there though.

Bringing her wings in for a landing, her talons grasped a thick branch of an evergreen tree to perch comfortably high up in the tree. The dense covering would work in her favor around here. She was even a few feet from the path leading up the castle but she knew that there wasn't a soul who could see her through the branches. Taking in the sights and sounds of the forest, she acclimated herself to the area as quickly as she could. Even in her hybrid form, her eyesight was better than an average person's. It only took a few glances around before she felt comfortable to move again. Gliding to another tree silently, Mina did the same thing. She stopped to listen and look around her. Sure this meant she would take a while before she reached the castle, but better safe than sorry in her book. To her, scouting was the same as hunting. Almost. There were a few key differences, but the basic idea was the same. Being silent and remaining out of sight were her two codes that she lived by while hunting and scouting.

Mina went from tree to tree, stopping to listen and look every single time she transferred branches. The trip itself was informative because she saw a few black bear cubs that she wanted to avoid like the plague. Where there were cubs, there was the mother. Mama bear would not like it if she got too close to the cubs. Yes, best to avoid any confrontations with angry bears. Though that wasn't all she saw on her trip to the castle. She saw the standard foxes, squirrels, and other small woodland creatures. The trip was a bit slow, but she wasn't all that familiar with the terrain so she didn't know what to expect.

Upon arriving at the castle, Mina observed two guards out front. They were leaning against the large door with rather bored looks on their faces. She'd agree with them there that standing guard in a relatively secure location was about as dull as watching paint dry. Personally she'd love to just sit in a tree and watch the change in shifts, but she figured that spending the least amount of time around the castle would be for the best. The castle itself was taller than it was long with a small turret on the roof where the Jolly Roger of the King pirates fluttered gently in the wind.

Mina glided from tree to tree as she searched the perimeter for any other guards in the location other than the front door. She expected to find at least five other men at random intervals around the castle, but surprisingly there was no one. Not even on the roof. Did Duncan have his head so far up his own ass that he didn't even bother protecting his castle correctly? Mina was stunned at the lack of protection around the place. Or maybe his subordinates said "fuck it" and left their posts because it was so damn boring. Shaking her head gently, she travelled to the next tree and looked around. She blinked when she saw a window wide open on what she gauged to be the second floor. The large wooden window was rather tempting. Looking around once more and listening for anyone nearby, Mina jumped from the tree and silently flew to the access point. Her talons grasping and digging into the loose stones just below the window sill, she hung just below the window and out of sight of anyone in the room. Carefully peering into the room, Mina was greeted with the sight of a library. Blinking she took a quick look before gauging it to be a safe move to enter the room. The door was shut to the rest of the building so she would have some time to bail if anyone entered. Climbing into the castle, Mina reverted to her human form for this little expedition. The library was fairly large with stone walls and stone floors. Well that was to be expected; everything seemed to be either made out of stone or wood around here. However, despite the amount of shelves in the place, it was a fairly empty library; a few scarce books sat on the shelves. Though something on a table caught her eye rather easily.

Quickly slipping out of her sandals, Mina pulled a leather cord out from her left pocket to tie her shoes together and then tie it to her belt loop. Her sandals, although they provided little protection for her feet, were worn for this very reason. Mina's footfalls were silent when she didn't wear shoes and it's not like they really even mattered when she transformed into her hybrid or full form, so if it was up to her, she'd just go barefoot all the time. Padding over to the table, Mina blinked in surprise when she found that they were the floor plans for the castle. The blue paper had the architecture written as plain as day on it. Smirking widely, Mina rolled up the plans and tied another leather cord around it before tying them next to her shoes. Just as she was about to leave, the doorknob began to rattle. She wouldn't be able to make it to the window in time, that much was positive. Looking around quickly, she found the rafters being the next best place to go. Launching herself up to the rafters using a combination of pure strength by jumping off the table and her Zoan powers, she settled in the rafters just as the man walked through the door.

This man had completely foregone a shirt and just wore a pair of black pants with matching dress shoes. Granted he was a fairly muscular fellow, but that didn't excuse the act of stupidity he was just about to perform. The black haired man didn't even pay attention to his surroundings as he tossed the book in his hand onto a shelf without so much as a glance around the room. He then left; the door closing behind him. Disgusted by his lack of foresight, Mina hopped down from the rafters and looked outside. There wasn't a soul outside either. Shaking her head at how easy this was, Mina flew to the trees to begin her travels back to the bar.

Mina was about halfway back when she heard the loud laughter of men coming up the path. Stilling in the trees, she took in the sight of 4 men. Her bronze eyes widened in shock at what she saw though. One of the men, a huge bear of a man even larger than Sarge, was carrying a man in a white boiler suit.

* * *

**I never said anything about me being evil now did I? Well, you should know that I'm _totally_ evil. In all seriousness though, thank you to all those who've reviewed, favorited, and followed. And also for putting up with my shoddy update schedule. Your patience is much appreciated. The next one... Well, I'm gonna try for next month about the same time as this update. Oh, and another thing. If any of you catch the reference to one of my favorite game series in this Chapter, then you've earned my undying love. In the non-creepy way of course.**


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